Chris Song - poem #4 - down to the ground

down to the ground

so much we must witness

reality looms on the city’s skyline

like the weight felt between eyebrows

fall finally arrives, and the city should

have looked into his shadow

and felt with himself, but he becomes so pompous

that lifts take us to the ground

escalators bring us to under-

ground, metros send us to

hell where we all line up

the one just ahead of me is about to

jump. He turns around and says–

you are my witness

I am your hell
we are our own city

(written on September 4, 2016; the day of Hong Kong’s 2016 legislative election)