Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2019 | Page 69

On the world around me
The lives around me
The sailors beside me,
I do not know.
That my wife and children
Will be devastated by my death
Back at home
I know.
That my parents
Will turn in their graves
For I will join them
Too soon
Too early
I know.
Step.
But is it really
Me
That they are missing?
My wife
She loses her husband.
My children
They lose a father.
My emperor
He loses a captain.
It is not
Me.
Stop.
And what is the loss of
One sardine
In the ocean of life?
Nothing.
Below me
The ocean is
A writhing mass of
Waves and fins
With the promise
Of a quick passing.
Here a leg
There a hand
I had been shaking
Only this morning.
Step.
Step.
Plunge.