We sit in a darkened room,

gazing at the bright screen, where

images of old Hong Kong appear.

An eerie silence drains the scenes:

Few people; little life that moves.

Only buildings, low, with colonnades; huge trees;

the Peak, now lush and verdant, bare like a moonscape.

It is cosy in the room, manageable, known;

Getting the history books in order

Before new possessors come.

People came and went about their business,

crossing the lenses of old cameras;

but they─intent on things that stayed

more permanently─

ignored them, made no record.

Will the Chinese cameras,

moving in terms of centuries, not hours,

notice us

at all?

1970-1997

From Gillian Bickley, For the Record and other Poems of Hong Kong, Proverse Hong Kong, 2003, distributed in Hong Kong and worldwide by: The Chinese University Press, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Tel: (INT+852) 2609-6508; Fax: (INT+852) 2603-7355; cup@cuhk.edu.hk; web: cuhk.edu.hk/cupress; distributed in the United Kingdom and worldwide except Hong Kong by: Christine Penney, 28 West Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6DN, UK; email: christine.penney@virgin.net