Hope is on the Way if you Stay by Mei Yuk Wong

Leaving 6.5 million people behind the sunrise
Opening a new page in an early morning Heathrow
Never met such a kind English lady
Giving me a lift at 70-amazingly-dangerous

Knowing nobody and nowhere
Oh, so quiet and deadly peaceful
Nothing should be said and didn’t know what to say
Gone to bed with mosquitoes whispering instead

Looking at all the masterpieces
On contemporary, modern or classic
No doubt, they work

Dialogue with him, with her, with them all
Moving from Van Gogh’s Shoes to my own Buttons
Oh, how satisfactory
Nothing could compare

Rainbow in the sky—surely a good sign
A nice man(chester)
Perhaps

Cold and wet
Dull and boring
Isolated and lonely
Being bullied and not knowing how to react

Bus is never reliable
Even worse, filled with smoke
No choice, but a passive smoker
Confront them, not so safe

Look at the ghosts
Poor dead in Morecombe Bay
Don’t come and stay away
You may not be welcomed

Remember one big Commonwealth Games 2002
Be proud of Manchester
As a volunteer among the thousands
Mancunians made it happen

Hope is on the way if you stay
In faith, in art and in poetry
For friends and families

With love and honesty

© Mei Yuk Wong

Read more #westandtogether #Manchester poems here