Poem: Heartstrings of my Island

Heartstrings of My Island

are there

heartstrings taut

and a’pulling

barred

so strong

and tender once

my ancestral home

to me

where nay never

shall I leave

here my motherland

liberated

and return

again and again

to you impatiently

even

in my sleep

that old familiar

bumboat

droning low

in the sound of my youth?

here I am

coming home

even in my sea-dreams!

- Joseph Lai