The Rail Ties That Bind

A little girl She comes to a land of ghosts Almost empty streets She wonders Where are all the people No one here looks like her Within her heart Emotions stir It is so cold Foreign Lonely Where oh where, is the mountain of gold Her mom and dad they are so bold Pioneers Adventures People of action Not of words Hong Kong Left behind A new future to find They endured the sad A world not kind Their crowded apartment A benevolent uncle stole To leave the country they paid a toll Plane tickets in her fathers hand Brought his family to a new land The little girl did not understand The language she knew Was Chinese She spoke it with such ease She thought, she must throw it away The bits of her culture slowly stripped day by day Forced to grow up, with blinding speed She looks after, siblings needs No time for her She couldn't play Duty and honour The Chinese way Mom and dad, working night and day They do so much, for little pay Food on the table Their sacrifice A warm home Within a land of ice Through the years A life is built Yet the little girl, she is filled with guilt She knows, there's been a sacrifice Beneath the surface, of all that's nice Many, many, years ago Her grandfather was here Away from her dad, for many years Cooking for men, who worked the rail line A small comfort when they would dine Disposable humans They took the risk The horrors so many To long too list They needed their families So far away Yet the politicians, turned them away The abuse he suffered With all his friends It seems now the Government wants to make amends The past and future, are combined You can't move forward Without looking behind The little girl, now grown up For the past, she gives her thanks Dreams from ties She rides their rails Blood and sweat from hammering nails She hears echoes, from the past It seems their gifts, were forged to last My wife went to a forum where the government apologized for the awful things that were done to the Chinese people who came to work in Canada. So many Chinese men left their homes in search of a better life for their families. They were forced into slave like labour to build our cross country railway. Many of them lost their lives in the process. They were not allowed to bring their families. When the earlier generations came they were charged a head tax to move to Canada. This discrimination was exclusive to Asian people. This is a sad chapter in our Canadian History.