Thank you Carrie
For listening to your people,
The Executive Council
That you appoint,
And the DAB.

Thank you for your sensitivity
To anger in Beijing
And the Liaison office.
To whom you must listen
And obey.

Thank you for your humility
In telling us, the Hong Kong people,
We still don’t understand —
That it was all just a case
Of miscommunication.

Thank you for your sacrifice
To carry on regardless
Of what the people demand,
In an untenable position
For the good of Hong Kong.

Thank you for your trust
In Hong Kong people,
Peaceful and ordered, we obey
The law, mostly.
You called a riot.

Thank you for your courage
To stand with those with batons,
Licking their wounds and reputations
As Asia’s Finest
They once could claim.

Thank you mother
For not listening to our fears,
And beating us, your children
With the best intentions
For our own good.

Thank you, Carrie.
Now that He has abandoned you
Where will you go?
To join your family, perhaps
In another place?

(A Poem written after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s announcement in suspending the controversial extradition law on 15 June)

This time everything was in order. Procedure had been followed. A court injunction had been posted, informing those who had illegally occupied Admiralty for 75 days that they were in violation of a court order and that they were required to clear the area. A day earlier the police had made it clear that bailiffs would be arriving tomorrow morning, when the injunction would come in to affect. The barricades were coming down and the roads cleared for traffic.

Details of the operation were made public. At 9am bailiffs would issue their warning; at 10am they would begin to clear the roads; at 10.30am the police would take over the operation; from 11am the area would be on lock down, and no one would be allowed either in or out.

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