Trials of the Gobi Desert
St. Paul’s Co-educational College, Chung Kit Lam, Poetry: Group 4
You’re not mere sand and harsh weathers
Nor dismal valleys and dusty haze
But of grains of gold and rims rising high
Where void meets greenery and horses graze
Under your lilac sky a gazelle trots across the gravel
Along blazing ridges and dunes fast asleep
Midway in a swift errand the gecko wavers, whiffs, tenses
And darts back where the chasm gapes down deep
Yurts of vanilla, monasteries of ruby eaves
On the vast plain of yours a civilization germinates
And yet copper and gold and salt and cashmere
It will not be long till your provision terminates
You finch at the mine tractors’ growling
As you stare up frozen dismayed in your dream
Dust shrouds the sky
And a nonchalant grunt of engine answers your soundless cry
Your pain swells yet you cannot tell
Striving to stand frm however much they stole
Yet no one balks at the trampling and drilling
As their self-seeking attempts gnaw away at your soul
