by Zabrina Lo

Before you left
for another home we
used to sit at both ends
of the dinner table
and quarrelled about
life-and-death matters
of adding too much Dijon
too little salt
how cancer is necessary
for a taste of heaven
or who’s to own
the last rib

Five years on
you return
and sit next to me
I ask
if the burn on your ulna hurts
You answer
the roast is well-done

The telly blasts on
but we are at peace
as the untouched bones turn cold

Inspired by her experience travelling in 11 countries and writing about it during Semester at Sea Voyage 2016, Zabrina Lo returned from pursuing her MA in English at University College London to Hong Kong, where she now dedicates her literary efforts to preserving her home city’s cultural heritages, wildlife as well as arts and cultural landscape as an editor. Her articles, poems as well as film and theatre reviews have been published in Oxford Magazine, Zolima CityMag, Agora and London’s Plays To See. When she’s not writing, she spends her time on stage, in galleries or in the wild—which sometimes end up becoming her writing space.