Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2017 | Page 128

The Echoes of an Age
St. Margaret's Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School
(Secondary Section), Tsang, Natalie - 13
The Old City of Shanghai
Has all but crumbled.
Where the old gates once lie
Is the memory of an empire.
It has witnessed the rise
And fall of dynasties.
Moans and desperate cries
Of people yearning for peaceful times.
It has heard footsteps
Of foreigners young and old,
Flapping wings of doves
With stories in their claws.
It has felt the breeze
That brought about changes,
The joy of peace
And the rumble of war.
It has smelled the smoke of conflict
And the bitter tang of corruption
When people were tricked
By the guise of a fair rule.
It has tasted the despair
Of a man knelt at the feet
Of men in suits unaware
Of the family on his shoulders.
It has experienced the footfalls
Of people from all seas,
Who then leave behind scrawls
Of a part of their culture.
Under the modern streets
Is a city that faded with time.
But written on old sheets
Are stories left untold.