A visual representation of "City" by Louise Ho
SHU Ka Kei
Shek Lei Catholic Secondary School
A busy city life may make people indifferent, ruthless and selfish.
Everyone just keeps moving forward, never stopping to take a serious look at themselves and those around.
In the painting, I used a variety of blueish grey tones for the high-rise buildings in the background to create a mundane and monotonous atmosphere.
The people who are painted in the same sombre black colour represent the urban dwellers.
Their robotic appearance shows that they are trapped within their self-created maze of criss-crossing feet.
Only the tramp sitting among the walking people is, ironically, in bright colours.
The contrast in the use of colours helps to bring out the oddness and loneliness of the street sleeper.
Although many people walk past the street sleeper, no one stops and tries to understand his or her needs.
The street sleeper is marginalised in the affluent city.
Homeless, forgotten, ignored.
Why don’t we stop to show our care and sympathy for them?
City
No fingers claw at the bronze gauze
Of a Hong Kong December dusk,
Only a maze of criss-crossing feet
That enmeshes the city
In a merciless grid.
Between many lanes
Of traffic, the street-sleeper
Carves out his island home.
Or under the thundering fly-over,
Another makes his own peace of mind.
Under the staircase,
By the public lavatory,
A man entirely unto himself
Lifts his hand
And opens his palm.
His digits
Do not rend the air,
They merely touch
As pain does, effortlessly.
Louise Ho
“City” was published in Incense Tree: Collected Poems of Louise Ho by Louise Ho, p.45. Copyrights © 2009 by Hong Kong University Press.