Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Poetry 2020complete | Page 140

speeds along the tracks spidering like neurones and synapses through the expanse, kindling limelight and embers of red and yellow and fluorescent white with its passage until an ocean of distant firefly simulations flicker in reply akin to the northern beacons of old. Mere juvenile nebulae, yet my view clears as the clusters of dust compress to emit radiance, piercing the sky to reveal the outlines of steel and concrete intertwined, mirroring the pewter clouds lined with pristine silver. Two headlights dimming as the train pulls into the station. The dazzle of overhead lamps douses all; the platform hurries forth in greeting. As the crowd rushes in to displace those alighting the flashes and buzz promise me of home away from home, for this, this world before me, this unfamiliar familiarity is simply home extended. Two hundred kilometres out in the early morning hours I see cities, scintillating, as I draw near the heart of a realm yet unnamed, but faintly glowing.