Nicholas Wong shares a poem on the theme of archiving Hong Kong.

 

 

 

It’s not easy to unfurl the lips 
like paper horns look the clouds 
stretch with fluffy luck 
into Komodo Dragons       claws 
groomed with dirt           & hurt 
the planeless sky finally could hold 
a window somewhere gets sentenced
to jail for being transparent every night 
I mop my anger out 
of the floor as anger dettols 
the germs out of the mop     it’s not easy 
to unfurl the lips like paper horns
kisses put on hold banks boarded up 
on the outside ATMs couldn’t       spurt
money bills      poor people of walk-away
sorrow if lucky they talk 
to each other so many seconds 
in an open sea of ideal
health & freedom     even dead
air is good      air now       breathe       
watch stars shine       silky resilience              
be glad       more light
blinding         could have taken place

 

 

Nicholas Wong is the author of Crevasse, which won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Besiege Me. He has contributed writing for projects of Manchester International Festival and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and is currently working on a commissioned project that creatively translates the lyrics of Mirror, a Cantopop boy group, for UK/HK Peer to Peer 2022. 

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Author

Nicholas WONG, 黃裕邦

Topic
Poetry & Fiction
Date
Mon, 10 Oct 2022
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(im)permanence: A Poetry Series
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(im)permanence: A Poetry Series

Visual and textual meditations from Hong Kong poets on the theme of archiving this city