TIANANMEN
A man and a woman chase a waddling child through the night;
An old man in an undershirt, shoes off, toes free;
Soccer balls careen noisily with thuds and chatter;
Couples kiss on newspaper blankets;
Another only child rolls a tennis ball through the shadows;
Silk eagles and dragons soar surreally above our heads;
All depth fades away against the clear sky;
Wingtips and fins become wisps in the warm dry breeze;
You lose yourself for a moment, forget where you stand;
But green uniformed teenagers remind you what freedom really means;
Floodlights shine luridly off the portrait of Mao;
Red star flags flap loudly in the wind;
Three skateboarders jump a suspended string like some unattainable prize;
Polaroid camera booths dot the landscape like boils;
The brazen red glow of the Hong Kong clock counting down its demise;
Fear and anger reflect from steel submachine gun barrels;
The roar of tanks etched in granite and marble;
Freedom of choice died that day seven years ago;
What freedom do they have now?;
Freedom to consume- the neon announces that;
Japan’s fruit ripens in the Beijing night;
Freedom of assembly? Security cameras sit stark on floodlight poles reminding us no;
Freedom of choice? To choose which beeper or camera, which TV or blouse;
To choose a leader, the ‘people’ will do that for you;
If consumerism is why we have democracy;
Don’t lament the lot of the Chinese, they have it all without the painful choices;
If consumerism obscures our democracy;
Pluck the prepackaged day-glo weeds that suck the nutrients from our soil;
U.S. fruit rots in the New York night;
The solid oak of democracy is out there somewhere;
The trouble is we keep writing our names on it.
4 June 1996 Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China.