Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2019 | Page 136
New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages
Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School, Chan, Yan Ting Tiffany - 16
This is my tale
Of how we all went
On the greatest trip ever
All of us in search of treasure
Not knowing the treasure we were forming.
The guys called me Cheeky Boy
Because of the laughter I brought them during the day
Dancing around the deck, getting in everyone’s way
And at night, when I told my own tales to the men and the stars
Describing with such antics as you could never imagine
The treasures that we dreamt of finding in foreign lands
So we might forget that we were scared
Once
General Zheng visited our ship
And called me
Me!
to serve him at dinner
I won’t forget
the way my body trembled
as I gave him his cup
took his bowl
and was so so close to our leader
Me within touching distance of he
I know that he remembered me too.
Just as I remember the places we went and the gems we saw
Large grey beasts with massive horns taller than I
Spotted creatures with necks that reached up to the sky
And the barbarians of my imagination
Dressed strangely, (sometimes) barely covering their crazy-coloured skin
Crazy like the unfamiliar scents cruising the tang of the sea
And the babbling of a hundred different languages wherever we went-
I collected so much treasure my mind could not hold them all
And night by night my stories grew
Until one night, the entire crew
Was hooked upon my words.
It wasn’t all wonderful.
Occasionally we fought
Barbarians of the sea
Ruffians like pirates and hostile armies.
Times like these, my tales were useless
My brothers helped me now
As I, a little kitchen boy
Cowered behind crates
And prayed for their lives.
When we saw the shadow of home again
We all cheered but inside we all cried
Without my friends, allies, brothers:
Home would not seem like home.
We set off in search of treasure
And even I, nobody to you
Struck gold.