Response poem to Irisa Kwok’s Hong Kong Triptych
When spring never came, my friend left forever.
She said, fuck the neon metropolis and instead moved
to countries of fog instead of mist, brick
instead of cement.
She bowed not once, not twice but thrice.
Swam laps around the public pool.
Am I not people, is there no place for me
in this bauhinia, this town of orchids?
I want to come Home Kong,
Am I expat, foreigner forever? Or am I
a tree re-rooting itself, finding its ancestors
up the family trunk.
I take the ferry more than once a month,
I run across the dragonback hills
and fly up the 120 floors.
The city has changed beyond our sight
but I will uncover the hidden pearl,
chocolate strawberry candy,
that lies at the mouth of the river delta.
Of course the first thing I did was google Irisa Kwok & try to find Hong Kong tryptich, because this was so absolutely stunning I really wanted to see what sort of thing this was inspured by. Sadly I couldn’t find it, but thank you for the vivid trip to Hong Kong nonetheless. Also, Home Kong? genius. I love puns.
the entire poem really encapsulates the way being stuck in the liminal space inbetween places can be experienced even/especially while in one of them. I know that feeling myself and am in love with how gently you portray all that longing and uncertainty but also passion in the way you wrote about it.