Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2017 | Page 9

Wishing Tree in Old Shanghai
St. Paul's Co-educational College Primary School, Lai, Cheryl Trinity Cheuk Kiu - 7
I am just an aging plane tree* in Old Shanghai,
Over the decades I have my descendants far and wide.
Now I am sad to say goodbye.
My Shanghai, do you hear me cry?
All the best, Shanghai!
I was once a tiny seed brought to Shanghai in the Qing Dynasty,
I stroke my root in a garden overlooking the riverside of Yangtze.
Trading troops and ships from oversea,
Bringing people of many countries to trade and sightsee.
Here was once called the Pearl of the Sea.
What happened that no more admire but afire?
Burning opium ended with gunfire!
Shanghai was divided into concessions with all sorts of occupier,
Now my garden was invaded by a French sire.
My Shanghai was carved up for ceasefire.
Decade of prosperity brought thousands of western,
My garden was converted into a tavern,
A glass of chilled rosé poured for a French politician,
Laughter from a girl in cheongsam holding lantern.
Had my Old Shanghai been totally forgotten?
Years of quarrels ended with the Civil War,
My motherland then entered into the dark era of the Gang of Four.
End of troubled era came the policy of open door,
Economy of my Old Shanghai started to soar.
Will my life be back to peace as before?
Yet one day I woke up in a commotion,
I found myself chopped down to make way for transportation.
Though I had survived the wars, the greed and the invasion,
I could not survive human’s selfish ambition.
The people dream to build the world’s largest infrastructure,
The cost of which is the old culture and the beauty of nature.
Devastating and heartbreaking, I feel the pain is piercing,
Here I’m forever sleeping, and the old tales of Shanghai are fading.
*Plane tree, wutong shu, a kind of roadside tree that the French planted in Shanghai French Concession.