A metallic bit in your tongue
Jennifer Wong

You, who have nothing wrong
with your tongue, do not know us.
You’re from a planet where
justice has no other orbit.
You've never read a book
then tried to unlearn it.
For you a deer is just a deer,
and Orwell's farm has no real animals.
I don't blame you. But we have read
Boxer's story and don't even
dare to cry. Reality's too mad,
too close sometimes. Your map
shows every street and station.
You assume every dream or feeling
has a definition. I don't explain
what we, with all the new wealth
of the country, can't buy.
It's an expensive word.
And you, having never endured
the metallic bit in your tongue,
can’t imagine.

Jennifer Wong was born and grew up in Hong Kong. She did an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She is working on a PhD on Chinese diaspora poetry at Oxford Brookes, and is the recipient of the Hong Kong Young Artist Award this year. Her recent collection is Goldfish (Chameleon Press). This poem was inspired by her recent trip to Beijing.

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter.
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