by Akin Jeje

50-odd years ago,

On the streets of Kowloon, the streets of Harlem, the lanes of Tsim Sha Tsui, the avenues of Watts, the alleys of Mong Kok, the tenements of Detroit, the housing estates of Yau Ma Tei,

The problem then, as now, was black and white.

Blacks straddled, blued-barrels to their heads, against black-and-whites,

Black Marias crammed with emaciated men side to side, white singlets to collars, screams and hollers, tension surging from across the colonial border.

Now black-clads keen and mourn for a city in peril as they are whipped to a frenzy with bamboo canes by white-clads raised from the undead,

Heady cocktails of pepper mist, batons and rubber bullets go straight to youthful heads.

Every time long hot summers burn with frustration, things spill.

Crowds out in sweltering thoroughfares.

The sizzling blood of opponents who become combatants.

The perspiration of the metropolis, fidgeting in anxiety, recoiling from visions of the tread and march of green-clad troops with tanks and rifles.

Tears, after dreams deferred are shelved indefinitely, but decrees come into effect immediately.

It’s too hot now. Temperature’s cracked the thermometer. Out here, our young firebrands continue to crackle, aflame with defiance.

Pray that their zeal, their ideals are not extinguished.

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.