Shih-Fang Wang

Looking Forward

Looking back on 2020

A year full of adversities

The Earth is trampled by viruses

Scorched by fires

Roared with anger of injustice toward black life

Sky was darkened with ashes

Air thick with fear

Death toll is creeping up

Threats are constantly lurking

These days of turmoil are extra slow

The waiting for improvement is awfully long

Our patience is draining 

Heedfulness is fatigued

Looking forward to 2021 with hopes for

Eradicating the pandemic

Distancing from hardships

Tossing face masks

Returning of handshakes and embraces

Recovery of the broken world

Looking for You

If the day is clear and 

My vision can reach far down the road 

Where it converges into a pin dot 

Then I will go to the place we parted 

To look for you

Like an arrow shot from a bow 

Headlong you hurried forward

and never looked back that day

Leaving me hollowed with sorrow

And those tears still warm on my face 

If down the end of the road

I see no inkling of you

Then I will search you in my memory

An ocean with unfathomable depth

The image of you from bygone days

Must have sunken down to the seabed

And might be devoured by hidden monsters

But still I will dive deep to look for you

Even if only your tattered form left

If still can’t find you in the memory

I then will search for you in my dreams

When time is proper and mood brewed

Out of blue you may appear in 

the nebulous night heaven

So I am going to fall into a deep slumber

And let it take me over the moon

I Wish I Looked Back

My mother and sister resided in a town 

Six thousand miles away

Every time when I ended my visit 

They would see me off at the station 

Waiting for the bus to take me to the airport

Long after my mother passed 

Did my sister told me that mom would

Weep a lot watching the bus taking me away

Truthfully I did not know it 

When bidding farewell what I heard

Were mom’s thoughtful words 

What I saw were her caring smiles 

Only now I know she was trying her best 

To hold her tears back

She told me that at her elder age

One more time we see each other

One less time left for the future

I was still young and thought she would 

always be there for me to visit

But she sensed those chances

Were numbered

Only when opportunities all exhausted

Did I treasure them more

I regretted I did not look back

When boarding on the bus

Otherwise through her tearful eyes

I would see her longing for 

my next visit already started and  

I would hold her tighter and longer 

when we were together