Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2019 | Page 64

For you, Ba Ba
Harrow International School Hong Kong, Joseph-Hui, Alexandra - 12
The rope soared through the air, and it whispered
You can’t go back anymore.
Staring behind me, the towering masts summon
A wave of terror crashes that down on me.
Like a storm that never ends, pulling me down,
I grasp safety but it slips through my desperate fingers.
I’m a hopeless soul in the midst of an overwhelming adventure.
I can’t do this anymore.
Feeble, Fearful, Weak, the words flew from his mouth
To attack me.
A cold stare looking through me.
My own father didn’t believe in me.
Just you wait and see, Ba Ba,
I will bring lavish gifts of silk and gold.
I will face armies like a valiant soldier,
My feet fixed on the swaying floor,
Honored to defend my country.
This broad, wooden beast of a boat is cruising
Mightily atop the rolling waves of a seemingly infinite sea.
A different gush, a sense of possibility is pulsing inside me .
Will this deep and endless ocean lead me to a different universe,
Filled with an aura of magic and warmth,
Or will it be blanketed by darkness and peril?
Blinding, beating, streaming sun
Pours into me, but the whirl of dizziness and heat
Makes my senses stir.
The pungent aroma of rich spices tantalise me.
Beautiful, dark women with bright, vivid headpieces,
Where am I?
I’m in a world far away from home, but this exotic place,
It calls to me.
I’m a speck among thousands of vessels,
Thousands of soldiers, thousands of treasures.
Remember the boy I used to be?
Some of my friends were taken, but here I am,
Undaunted by the arrows flying past my ears.
Unshaken by the boom of the cannon,
As our enemies tried to drag us down, thinking we were here to slaughter.
But those dark, unfamiliar people alien to us,
I wonder if they were afraid and threatened like I once was.
Or are their bare feet firmly planted into the soil,
Holding their arrows mightily, pointed at our ship?