A visual representation of "City" by Louise Ho
YIP Sze Hoi Serena
Maryknoll Convent School (Secondary Section)
‘City’ by Louise Ho is a poem about the miserable life of street sleepers who are neglected in the shadows in a vibrant city.
They are often lonely and desperate inside their island homes and no one ever lends a helping hand.
In this painting, I try to depict the feelings of a street sleeper who is abandoned by the world.
He is in his own dark corner under the stairs, while buried under lanes of traffic.
Cars hurry by while he stays stationary alone under the shadow of the city.
The only companions he has are a few tree sparrows away from their nests, just as he was from his home.
He is looking up at the cityscape at dawn and a flying tree sparrow catches his eyes.
The sparrow is free and released into the bronze sky while he is trapped and imprisoned by the coldness of the city.
I hope my painting puts street sleepers back into perspective, and raises public awareness of these rejected individuals.
We should help anyone out, welcome them, give them food and shelter and the warmth they deserve.
It is time for us to step in and save the homeless from their suffering.
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.