On the Way to Welcome Market, Hong Kong
I wobble with Bell’s palsy,
Face paralyzed stumbling along
Oxford Street in Kowloon Tong.
Patch over unblinking eye.
Fog devours the emerald ridge
Separating us from New Territory.
Shadows fall backwards, kuroko my steps.
Sun rises where it should set.
A white cat sleeps in the gutter.
I pass gloss-black gates
Embossed with dragons.
Girl jogs by tugging a pug.
The top half of Mao’s face
Peers over a balcony on Renfrew Road.
The PLA barracks are deserted.
Fence surrounds the invisible army.
A jun ren standing in a box
Shifts rifle from right shoulder to left.
Woman in pants and pandanus hat
Rakes the empty lawn.
Notes:
kuroko: stagehands in kabuki theatre dressed in black
jun ren: soldier
interesting cityscape w/this hong kong district apparently split in half by a former Brit barracks turned PLA and now deserted; the bell’s palsy is to the narrator as the barracks are to the city–a grotesque reminder of foreign occupation–both British and China having control of the military outpost