Sweaty grey skies and the battering heat,

I sit numb burning black tees.

Do you hear the screams in every street?

As our knights put us to tearful sleep,

The ladies dressed in glass helplessly wheeze,

Paralysed within sweaty grey skies and the battering heat.

Camera flashes blind and bleed.

Roads squint, poles roll their eyes at rubbish bins,

Do you hear the screams in every street?

Five pink petals wilt with grief,

Browning to death in TV screens

Within sweaty grey skies and the battering heat.

Many million hearts but one beat,

As thunder is heard and lightning seen,

Do you hear the screams in every street?

Keyboards pound, whisper and shriek,

Truly terrible these tiring dreams

Of sweaty grey skies and the battering heat

Asking me—Do you hear the screams in every street?

About the author: Kamal [KAH-mahl] Preet Kaur is a final year English major student at Lingnan University. She teaches English in her free time across various schools in Hong Kong. Kamal will be starting her Masters at HKU this September.

Judge’s comments: “‘Sweaty Grey Skies and The Battering Heat’ is a poem driven by its harrowingly powerful imagery. Painful realities are effectively evoked in lines such as ‘As our knights put us to tearful sleep’ and ‘Roads squint, poles roll their eyes at rubbish bins’. The speaker’s eye zooms in and out throughout, making the depicted scenes feel both concentrated and panoramic.”

—Natalie Linh Bolderston