So the dance continues, but no one rejoices. And no one really believes the detainees “have completed their studies, found stable employment with the help of the government and have improved their quality of life and live a happy life.” (The Guardian)
So instead we shall lament for and with the Uighurs. #Advent
Dancing With The Middle Kingdom
New neighbours were sent to be with us. We
know they can’t stand us.
Throw your doppas down they told us. Your
songs are forbidden they told us.
Contempt, it rises like a lunar compass
shackling us both in a silk road conquest.
Home comforts have been taken from us. Our
children are lost so utterly lost to us.
Who surveils freedom’s death for us? Who
hears the child’s cry far from us?
With pork dumplings they torment us. With
baijiu they seek a ruckus.
Divine irony may make them like us. Swine
flu may make spare ribs as rare as mercy for us.
Empire building requires faces barbarous. So
according to their hearts they see us.
We are nothing except what they want from us. They
seek a solution for us, a solution for