Berfrois

Maybe

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Goldfish, Aaron Anfinson

by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

Maybe when three sparrows
line up neatly on a swing in Yuen Long,
whoever looks on patiently enough
will win the Mark Six.

Maybe goldfish bought in Mong Kok
are telepathic and share the secrets
of their new owners. ‘She is lonely.’
‘This one is lonely too.’
‘Nobody in the family talks.’

Maybe in the small hours
the letters on Lan Kwai Fong street signs
rearrange themselves to thwart
drunk English professors.

Maybe the stray dogs in Tin Shui Wai
are soldiers who died heroically
in the Battle of Hong Kong
reincarnated.

Maybe in the many nearby ghost towns,
ghosts do roam
and send old-fashioned good wishes
to abstract relatives in distant homes.

 


About the Author:

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming is a founding co-editor of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and she has edited several volumes of poetry and short fiction published in Hong Kong. Her first poetry collection Hula Hooping (Chameleon Press) was published in April 2015 and her first short story collection Her Name Upon The Strand (Delere Press) is forthcoming. In 2o16, she received the Young Artist Award in Literary Arts presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. She is an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, where she teaches poetics, fiction and modern drama.