“Here This Memory” by Ilaria Maria Sala

Here This Memory
by Ilaria Maria Sala

I don’t want to swim among riddles and puns
Turning what they crushed
Into an inside joke for nimble chess players

I don’t want to see you unprotected, burning
While their plastic foam enticements bounce off a sullen stone
Into the sea

I don’t want it

I don’t want this fight for a space in the brain
Site specific. The crispness before a page turns
It is black. Like people painted into a corner
Like the ink that has seeped into this, our month of June

What colour can you wear today
Without risking your job
What will you do Friday night
Are we morphing into a pun
Or can you again be a light

_{How to cite: Sala, Ilaria Maria. “Here This Memory.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 02 Jun. 2021, hkprotesting.com/2021/06/02/memory/.}

Ilaria Maria Sala was born in Italy, grew up in Bologna and Florence, and now lives in Hong Kong, where she writes about Hong Kong and China. She studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing University. She is a winner of the Bruce Chatwin Award for travel literature for Il Dio dell’Asia: Religione e Politica in Oriente: Un Reportage, a book of travel features about religion. Her articles can be found in the Guardian, at Hong Kong Free Press, and ChinaFile, among other places. She has published poetry and reviews in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. Ilaria is a Vice President of PEN Hong Kong.