Pride of Place: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a place in Hong Kong. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.]
Fighting within the walls of whiteness
A repeated journey
of pain and faith, and loss
A complicated reminiscence
of warmth and rows, and love
A disruptive chain
of secrets and bonds, and lies
about
the past
longing to be defied,
the present
hoping to be clung onto,
the future
resisted.
Hope gambles.
Fights goes on.
This is where waiting is wanted and unwanted.
This is where decisions are to be made and not to be made.
This is where life is welcomed and rejected, embraced and unplugged.
This is the place I have been so very often in these days. This is the spot I sent my parents the first-ever false alarm. This is my first party room to celebrate my mum’s birthday. This is my gateway to the beautiful unknown. This is also the theatre I had to show my endurance of physical pain. It is a room of joy for having. It is a room of tears for losing. It is a room where hope gets frail and despair is defeated. Right now, it is a wardrobe of mixed feelings.
Here have I tasted a roller-coaster ride and a losing battle. My favourite heroine is having her epic tussle here: deep down I hope she will win. She has been a fighter all her life, for her dreams, her love, her marriage and most importantly of all, her family. She makes me this human, a human I am grateful to be in. I owe her this life, many times ending up in a bittersweet melodrama of giggles and tears. She raises me up, to more than I can be. Here in this room of whiteness, I see heroism, affection, and pride, something I will have to strive to learn for the whole life.
If I can, I want to be your son again, and again, and, again.
Your firm grip
has just left your wrinkles
on me,
now
and forever.
I know.
Fight. Just keep fighting.
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Danny Poon is a graduate of the Department of English Language and Literature (Class of 1999).
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 