A skinny kid barely 12 years old, I had a good-sized basket of scrap metal on my back. I was not alone, of course. Ahead of me were bony boys and girls about my age, all born with a burden.
Boys wore no more than worn-out shorts. Girls fared better, covering themselves in patched clothes. One of them - I couldn't help imagining - turned around and smiled at me. What a lovely twig doll! Doll or no doll, however, we all desperately needed to sell stuff for food in a marketplace beckoning from afar.
Ouch! I cut myself walking barefoot. Well, I had sold my outgrown sandals the other day.
Unusually quiet behind me was my newly widowed mother. In her arms was my baby sister, also unusually quiet.
My baby sister ended up in heaven on that market day. No one explained to me why she didn't have a chance on earth.
Nightfall came. So did moonrise. Moon-gazing refugees from the Mainland were all over Hong Kong.
Mid-Autumn 1960
A skinny kid barely 12 years old, I had a good-sized basket of scrap metal on my back. I was not alone, of course. Ahead of me were bony boys and girls about my age, all born with a burden.
Boys wore no more than worn-out shorts. Girls fared better, covering themselves in patched clothes. One of them - I couldn't help imagining - turned around and smiled at me. What a lovely twig doll! Doll or no doll, however, we all desperately needed to sell stuff for food in a marketplace beckoning from afar.
Ouch! I cut myself walking barefoot. Well, I had sold my outgrown sandals the other day.
Unusually quiet behind me was my newly widowed mother. In her arms was my baby sister, also unusually quiet.
My baby sister ended up in heaven on that market day. No one explained to me why she didn't have a chance on earth.
Nightfall came. So did moonrise. Moon-gazing refugees from the Mainland were all over Hong Kong.
2022年中秋
調寄《浣溪沙》（詞林正韻第二部平聲）
海上明珠海底藏，冰輪獨亮自由光；人間幾處自由鄉？
歲月無言誇靜好，欄杆有力拍悲涼；西風一夜雁何方？
Author: renqiulan
*香港，号称东方之珠。