‘Four Slogans of Qi Hong’: A Poem by Bruce Dale Wise

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Four Slogans of Qi Hong

In Chongqing, China, August 29th, on high-rise walls,
a bold display of anticommunist ideas sprawled.
With two sets of projectors and surveillance cameras,
Qi Hong sent out into the city these large messages:

“It’s only with no communists that China can be new;
And freedom is no gift; to have it one must take it too;
Rise up you who refuse to be a slave; reclaim your rights;
Down with red fascists; overthrow dictating parasites.”

For fifty minutes, these four slogans cycled through and fourth,
until security discovered where they had come from.
Qi Hong had smartly gone to Britain, or he’d have been killed
for demonstrating his free will and engineering skills.

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Bruce Dale Wise is a poet and former English teacher currently residing in Texas.