Written upon watching this video. Note that May Day is the international day honoring workers.

 

 

Mayday on May Day

By Damian Robin and Evan Mantyk

With their pins and strings and force withal
And gloves as white as pus,
Like Marxist carpet wall to wall
They raise appalling fuss.

Their well-heeled feet stomp ev’rywhere,
Stomp “anti-Party blight.”
Like robots who’ve no hearts to bare
And minds with no insight.

It’s no use calling them what-for,
They’re for the power state –
Their boots are keys to ev’ry door
No need to knock or wait.

Their humaneness has gone to pot
There’s nothing to esteem,
Why pause to celebrate the rot,
The Party’s godless scheme?

As long as communism stands,
Destroying decency,
Its forces stomp across the land
That bore divinity.

These troops should fight the specter red,
The Middle Kingdom’s bane,
Just say, “I quit your rancid bed
I’m clean now from your stain,”

And march into the future’s light,
The counterculture* gone,
Then gloves or not you’re truly white,
Bathed in a brave new dawn.

*In China, counterculture is better known as Party culture and refers to the inhumane, anti-traditional culture that was propagated during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, and bears resemblance to American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s.  

X

May Day March By, China 2017

They’re not parading naked hate
Nor open blood ablution;
They don’t show hearts on armoured plate
Nor scalpel execution.*

Here they wave economy
And flag up cash and gains.
And cover up the Savagery
Of Organ Harvest stains.

On show no organs cut alive,
No living donors slashed;
Just the buzz, the army hive,
And armaments well-lashed.

Here we’re shown clean uniforms
And barrack troops well tuned.
No army doctors’ tired dorms
Nor living bodies pruned.

Here no operating tables,
Steel-topped, glazed by blood.
Just thoroughbreds from Killer Stables
Trained to stamp and thud.

These ranks parade to policy
That keeps the Party pursed.
Beside them marches Infamy,
All linked are chained and cursed.

*Referring to the forced harvesting of organs from unwilling prisoners in China.
 

Damian Robin is a writer and editor living in the United Kingdom.

Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York.

 

 

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5 Responses

  1. Sally Cook

    Congratulations – These are powerful poems. I still believe in the power of poetry and all the arts.

    Reply
  2. David Hollywood

    Appropriate put-downs and indignation. I wish we were all more mindful of our world’s behaviours! Thank you for these.

    Reply
  3. Debbie Johnson

    Wonderful poems about the situation and the ongoing persecution of falon gong. This is a situation we need to keep in our hearts and minds. It is unacceptable. Thanks for sharing these~Debbie

    Reply
  4. James Sale

    The second poem is especially graphic and horrific, because so clinically observed – and undertaken. Powerful stuff.

    Reply
  5. John W. L. Toivonen

    The poems are powerful statements about the evils of Communism. I am still disturbed by what happened at Tiananmen Square, and how our nation responded to the mass murder. We acted as if nothing had happened. Despite our desire for inexpensive electronics, we should have at least suspended most favored nation status for some time to protest their brutality.

    Reply

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