Thirty years not to forget dissent
The courage to rebel demand to be heard
Stand up for a right to be recognised
Humans forlornly pleading for freedom.
Spring blossoms uprising students repressed
Unallowed to express, censored by battle tanks,
Hopes of change crushed by chain tracks
Whilst communism lies next to Mao’s tomb.
Its alleged defenders cavort with foreigners
Enticing private companies enticed by investments
To boost economy ensure higher living standards
To all, only avowedly. Political openness encaged
In palaces, a million stand in Tiananmen square,
Concede or shoot a moral duel resolved
By martial laws firing on the crowds, uncounted
Bodies of the oppressed, guilty of seeking fairness.
The day ends and a new one begins
An unknown protester stands afore a column
Of armoured vehicles bringing them to a halt,
A still impasse as he climbs the dome gun turret
Attempts to speaks to the soldiers unheeded words
Then descends, engines on he persists remaining
Immovable until two blue figures pull him away,
No one knows who he was or what happened to him.
Thirty years for Tank Man to be reduced
To a pluri-awarded iconic frame yet embodying
An entire population seeking freedom and led
To forget him.
[Featured photo: Tiananmen Square, June 5, 1989. Copyright Jeff Widener, Associated-Press]