Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2018 | Page 93

The Wanderer
Maryknoll Convent School (Secondary Section), Lau, Nicole - 17
Trees line along the country lane.
Step by step I set foot on the soil,
As the morning dew twinkle
Under the rising sun.
Images of Xuanzang walking the exact same path
Come afloat in my head,
As I trace his footsteps
To find what he was looking for a thousand years ago.
The leaves in front start to shudder,
Clouds gather above my head.
Trees bend to form an arch
Inside which a mirror shimmers.
It is a peculiar urge that
Draws me closer to the portal,
An urge to venture into the unknowns,
To venture to the West.
I am paralyzed as I witness time flows by.
Where there used to be trees,
thick layers of sand now cover the tree stumps.
The morning dew evaporates into thin air under the scorching sun.
The lifelessness of the desert overwhelms me.
With the morning sun behind me,
I trek through the swirls of sand,
watching as the sand slowly bury the footsteps behind me.