Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2017 | Page 127

The Gates of Old Shanghai
St. Margaret's Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School
(Secondary Section), Tsang , Julia - 13
The Old Northern Gate
Ensures the people safe and free
Like great, white albatrosses
Soaring over a peaceful sea
The Great Eastern Gate
Protects the citizens who reside
As the spirits of dynastic ancestors
Guard their city with pride
The Great Southern Gate
Towers over the four
Until this day, you still can hear
The leaping dragon’s roar
The Old Western Gate
Guards over this brilliant site
Secretly watching over it,
The virtuous phoenix shines so bright
Then came the very first Opium War
For which the Chinese had not planned
Without a choice, the gates opened
As foreign forces took over the land
And as they progressed, chaos broke out
As they struggled for power day by day
The walls held the falling city
While society crumbled away
But in the end, our people broke free
And reclaimed the peace we once allowed
Though only a fraction of the walls still stand
As they watch over Shanghai
they are proud.
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