Forget me not, Please !

(For the students who skipped final examinations, including students in Sociology Department of Baptist University and students from other universities in Hong Kong; to my fellow journalists working on the frontline; and my friends King Hin, Yiu Keung, Raymond, Gabriel, and Rice Ear)


If the stars have forgotten how late it is,
We forget hunger,
Stepping out for each other,
No longer for oneself.

If twelve o’clock mid night is too early,
Our conscience stays awake
Eating take out order against the shields of riot police

is never too late

To block the sticks and chill that might hit any moment
Our beautiful flowers, tonight,
break out from the green house and lay down as barricade
to defend others by forgetting oneself

Forgetting fear, forgetting riot police, and the pain buried
Speak to violence, the wind of tenderness
Heart leans on heart, back against back, stars here

are in love with stars afar.

No chanting of slogans but bodies warming bodies
Swapping everything
Jackets, scarves, hats, rings, necklaces, and every inch of
Forget me not, please !

No boundary of language and nationality, my thought for you,

Requires no ID check, no status symbol.
Giving up examinations, not giving up examination of oneself
on the frontline of conscience.

Forget me not, when you walk by Victoria Harbor under the stars,
In solitude, as the beeze brushes,

Forget me not, please !
In every star, every rice ear, every mouth of grain,

I remember you,
Forget me not, please !


Dec. 19, 2006 Hong Kong
(translated from the original poem in Chinese Dec. 8, 2006 請你記得我)