by Piera Chen

SUNSET AT THE INNER HARBOUR

Hope is being something flat
at sunset at the Inner Harbour.
The walls of Ponte 8 ripple
in gold as they had when shipments
of oil, Portuguese presidents
and opium neared the shore. Before
the A-Ma Temple, an old man stirs
from his dream to scoop ice-cream
from a silver cart that burns
brighter than prayers
to the goddess.
The shutters of the Patane Library
from which meals of boiled shellfish
used to drift at the exact hour
when the Avenida da Republica
smelt of pão de ló
are aglow.
You can’t go hungry next to the sea.
And the row of fourfinger threadfins,
fish of the limping cellist, that only last fall
had lingered in loose schools
over muddy bottoms now hang
beaming, moon-white
on Rua de Cinco de Outubro.

SUNSET HOUR

The sun stoops to see its face
repeated a thousand times
on the neoned palaces, the megapolises,
the weird fruits that make up
the latest house of mirrors
called Macau.

It trails its fingers over the Chinese herring
that had lingered in loose schools
over the muddy bottoms of the shore
just last fall but now hang
salty, luminous
on Cinco de Outubro.

So much is ablaze for a few hours a day
in this city no bigger than a grain of sand
in the grand scheme of things
between Russia and the sea.
No greed enters into this nor regret,
not even courage or death.
Just a light that touches
the fish, the monoliths
with a softness as if it had come
from the past and whispers of
caravelas, Shiva,
demerara.

Hong Konger Piera Chen is a travel writer based in Taipei but scattered over China, North America, and various destinations, real or imagined. She has authored over a dozen books for Lonely Planet and published articles in travel magazines and on websites. Chen has a BA in liberal arts from Pomona College, majoring in literature, and an MA in literary and cultural studies from the University of Hong Kong. She believes that if writing is the most disembodied of the arts, travel writing and poetry are the genres that make it less so. And this is why she’s in love with both.