Ode to Hong Kong

 An age of darkness—

An age of light.

Of death,

and of life.

Moments of sorrow,
moments of joy;
moments of ending,
moments of beginning—
despair,
and hope.

Light shall be all,
and darkness shall fall. 

Quarantine.
Isolation.
In hospitals, in camps,
in rooms—
and in our minds.

A crown of virus,
a crowd of people:
in shopping malls,
in restaurants,
in lifts—
everywhere.

Behind masks,
goggles,
protective shields,
care shall rise,
and SARS shall fall. 

Washing hands—
one to ninety-nine.
Joining hands—
ninety-nine into one.

Nurses and doctors fall,
yet Hong Kong’s people
stand tall.

Love.
Solidarity.
They will conquer all.

By Rita Wong written sometime in July 2013 in Hong Kong during outbreak of SARS. Revised in December, 2025 in Rockville, Maryland, USA.

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Note: SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), named and declared a "worldwide health threat" by the World Health Organization on March 15, 2003.

Hong Kong eventually lost 299 of its citizens to SARS, part of a global death toll of nearly 800.