This is the second in a series of student work dedicated to interrogating creatively the concept of diaspora. A couple of brief remarks about the text might help to orientate the reader who is unfamiliar with the Hong Kong context in which this piece of writing sits.
Firstly, Mark Six, as you might imagine, is the name of the state’s lottery programme. Secondly, the language to which Alyssa occasionally switches here is Tagalog – one of the official languages of the Philippines:
“If I Won the Mark Six”
by Alyssa Menor (25 March, 2014)
If I won the Mark Six
I would pack everything
My clothes, my passport,
Buy a one-way ticket
Fly out of the country
To the place I call home.
If I won the Mark Six
I would give a big portion
To those in dire need
To the poor and the hungry
The people with no homes
Or live as squatters by the Pasig River.
If I won the Mark Six
I would buy a huge house
In Baguio or Tagaytay
Where all my pamangkins,
Titos, titas, and kapatids,
Will live together as a family.
If I won the Mark Six
I would hold a fiesta
Invite all the neighbors
We’ll have a large feast
Of lechon and pancit
And everything I have missed.
If I won the Mark Six
I would feel like myself again
Not just on Sundays in Central
But every single day
Back home in the Philippines
Where my heart truly belongs.
But until I win the Mark Six
Here I will stay
In this place called Hong Kong
I can only wish
For the day I go back
To the place I call home.
On World Literature 
This is a nice piece, Alyssa. 🙂