The Road To the Ballot Box -- In Memory of the Tiananmen Incident 1989

The Road to the Ballot Box – In Memory of the 1989 June Fourth Movement in Tiananmen Square, Beijing Up high, the portrait of Chairman Mao looms Over the ballot box, wrapped in chains of doom Beautiful as a mirage, a rainbow And no more reachable. The road ahead is winding, at times backwards bending, And above all, never-ending, And the one before – all too painful. The year of bloodshed; The year when students begged By strike, by mass hunger, For freedom and democracy But heard instead the bullet’s thunder; The eternal moment when one held his head high And a train of tanks he defied; When students refused to leave the Square, their friends, And sat unflinching through the bloody crimson end. The muted cry of these forgotten heroes On that fateful night twenty years ago Still rings loud and true in our hearts In a land where the engine of freedom wouldn’t start. Twenty years on they walk Defiant, grim-faced, Battered yet unfazed. Clothes torn in rags Here and there, a splatter of red Blisters on their feet Eyes that bear a burning piercing heat. Our hearts may be broken And our spirits shaken But still, the truth is out there – Still being spoken. Once more I lift my eyes To the mirage in the sky Will we ever get there? Walk on – do you dare?