Patton’s Intrepid (Tai Ngam Hau 大岩口)

Insects along the parched forest trail contribute non-stop commentary to the faint, fine print of my tread, as taut shadows hatch fragile frail-agile butterflies, their wings’ mock-eyes rounder than a bird-skull’s dusty astonishment.

I ignore reassuring signs to Sam Sing Wan 三星灣, to Ma Nam Wat 麻籃笏 (ocean’s promise clings loudest to landlocked roads), allowing hills to take me over and over the gradually mounting ache in my legs.

Abruptly, in a braille of rubble, the path gutters to a shallow furrow: pebbles of chalk white as bone shoot like marbles from under my soles. Distracted by danger, through a gap in a barricade of endless drab foliage, I am smacked suddenly hard in the face by supreme sea-blue . . .  That slab of wet moon-rock licked loudly by foam hisses

Tai Ngam Hau.

 

Photograph: 香港西貢天后廟 Tin How Temple, Sai Kung, Hong Kong (2018)

Design on a Wall Tile (Guest Laundry, Regal Riverside Hotel, 沙田 Sha Tin)

A red bug on a leaf of emerald-green clover —
I addressed myself to Almighty God:
            Dear Lord, could You please move over!
Because sometimes it is the fine details in an act of artistic creation
that bring me that rich-rare gift —
(do You remember it?) — elation.
Despite a lifetime’s long-drawn-out light-years
how much exaltation did I ever get for all my darkening cares?
How much? I scratched my head, perplexed. I believe
            I began to rave:
A bug and a leaf of clover — just for now, that’s all I have —
I said out loud to myself — here on a hotel laundry wall. And — preposterously —
            I tell You it is enough.

 

Photograph: 香港粉嶺麻笏圍 Ma Wat Wai, Fanling, Hong Kong (2016)