The poem on the right was written by Jacqueline P. Formento, a foreign domestic worker in Hong Kong, at courtesy of HelperChoice Hong Kong, about her feelings of being away from her kids.

• Remembrance
• Jacqueline P. Formento

• Do you remember these hands
• That used to push your cradle
• While the whistling wind on a stormy night
• Created the background
• To a vast ominous darkness?

• Do you remember the smell
• Of home-cooked meal clung to my skin,
• The tangy smoke of firewood
• That often left my eyes crying?

• Do you remember the soft lullabies
• When we watched the fireflies outside our window.
• While the starts danced merrily
• To the gentle wind from the ocean?

• But I know you will not remember
• The last time I held you in my arms,
• When I kissed your eyes while you were sleeping.

• I know that you did not even notice how
• I stealthily left our house
• In the cloak of dawn.
• I did not look back, but the tears kept falling.
• The emotions almost choked me
• To unconsciousness.

• That was a long time ago.
• Now I’m coming back,
• I fear your wrath.
• I fear the accusations in your eyes,
• The silent metallic anger when I left you.

• Unleash it my child.
• I’m home.