by Quenntis Vernonn Ashby

With respect to Hong Kong and apologies to William Wordsworth

I wandered heavy as a cloud,
A single sign high above Hong Kong city skyscrapers
Of my freedom from the bustle of the crowd,
In the company of windblown wastepapers;
Roadside mistakes, caught in truncheon trees,
Muttering, shouting against the armoured breeze.

Insidious as the buzzing of power lines,
Armoured wifi signals, the loudhailer way,
They protest against powerful lines,
Along the marginalised they sway.
I saw half a million marching at once,
Voices protesting without violence.

Defiant post-its flutter beside them; but they
Are as ephemeral as teargas tears down bloodied cheeks:
A poet could not but be forced to say,
With rubber bullet points well over nine full weeks:
I gazed—and gazed—with alarmed thought
What new dangers the world has wrought:

For when scaremongers fake up the news
For fickle and expensive reasons,
Paid mobsters flash hot agendas upon the innocent few
Who dare rise for peace and independence;
And then my heart empties of all pleasure,
As political snipers find targets at their leisure.

Quenntis Vernonn Ashby has professional performance experience in drama, dance, music, and poetry. He has performed in South Africa, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. His lifelong inspiration is his mother, who spent two decades wheelchair-bound. Quenntis is a father-of-three who teaches, writes and records kids stories for a monthly magazine. He also edits, collaborates, and creates/performs Travelling Tales for rural Taiwanese schools. Words articulate his passion for language as a poet and a uniquely creative artist.