A Visit

Tiger Gate, I Spent Ten Years Reading You

Tiger Gate, I spent ten years reading you—
reading the upward growth of buildings, their faith and pain,
reading the lives imprisoned beneath concrete,
where silent, nameless shadows remain just a surface.
Water flows from afar, only to leave again.

​

Reading hundreds of thousands of people, pulling out crumpled luggage,
stuffing themselves into factories and rented rooms—
from fervent passion, raising cups in song,
to singing lamentations, hearts still as water.
Time stretches forward, holding too many emotions,
their bodies, too, worn and creased.

​

It’s the coincidence of this era that brought me here,
to you—Tiger Gate.
The first time I wrote a poem about you, I thought of home,
a place called Badong.
That town has no glorious history or towering buildings,
only family, and those even closer than family.

​

Author Profile: Peng Yonghua, pen name Haidao, is a native of Mianyang, Sichuan, and a garment factory worker in Dongguan’s Tiger Gate. He once served as deputy director of the Migrant Worker Poetry Society. His works have appeared in magazines such as Foshan Literature and Art, Poetry Weekly, and Selected Micro-Poetry from China.

《虎门，我用十年时间读你》

​​​虎门，我用十年时间读你

读楼往高处生长的轨迹，信念和疼痛

读水泥下禁锢的生命

默默无闻影子始终是一种表象

流水从远方来，又去往远处

​

读几十万人，扯出皱巴巴的行李
把自己塞进工厂和出租屋

从激情澎湃，对酒当歌到长歌当哭，心如止水

光阴往前延伸，太多的情绪被收容
身体也是皱巴巴的

​

这是时代的巧合恰好我来了这里

你叫虎门。

第一次以你为题写诗也想到故乡

它叫八洞

那个镇没有辉煌的历史和高楼

只有亲人，和更亲的人

作者简介：彭永华，笔名海岛，四川绵阳人，东莞虎门某制衣厂工人，曾任打工诗社副社长，作品散见《佛山文艺》《诗歌周刊》《中国微博诗选刊》等杂志。