Under the Dragon
by Akin Jeje

Everything here is under the Dragon.
The beast sees all, bleaks all within the kingdom’s limestone walls.
Even the cobblestone stair steps upon our furtive clops fall,
Are the worm’s leaden hue, its iron-pallid pall.

We knew.
We can never return.
We huddle for protection, our steps quicken,
Warily, to avoid the Spectre.

His silhouette spreads across all vectors.
He is triumph, the emblem, the symbol, the Sun.
He is the One. Fear him, and tremblingly obey.
We stay, he devours everyone.

We had to run.
We had heard of the splendor of a nation hallelujah golden,
Un-shaded, uncovered, unbound,
Even by his tremendous wing-span.

We rush,
Last strides clacking frantically,
To the sanctuary of the harbour.
Hand the ship’s crew the last of our hoarded silver.

40 days unto a Promised Land.
We sway and heave,
In a crowded, filthy barge,
We are awash in an ashen sea.

We will be free.
We have made our choice,
Between the Dragon and the deep dark sea.
In the wake, our Old World recedes.

We keen for those still under
The dominion of the Dragon
But by the waves, the wind, the lightning,
The thunder, the depths beneath,
We move forth to the edges of the earth.
We will be free.

Canadian poet Akin Jeje lives in Hong Kong. Jeje’s works have been published and featured in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong. His first full-length poetry collection Smoked Pearl: Poems of Hong Kong and Beyond was published by Proverse Hong Kong in 2010. Jeje’s most recent publication “Marsh” is in Hong Kong’s Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine (Issue #48, July 2019). He is working on another full-length poetry collection entitled write about here. Jeje is a previous MC of the English language poetry collective Peel Street Poetry and one of its three directors. He is also a regular contributor to Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine and Cha, and a member of PEN Hong Kong.