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I saw him near George, not Tiananmen, Square,<\/p>\nI saw him near George, not Tiananmen, Square,<\/p>\n
A Chinese student, taller than the norm,<\/p>\n
Open-shirted like a fifties Socialist, Swinging a plastic poke from M and S,<\/p>\n
And chewing on his lip.As Strathclyde buses orangely passed,<\/p>\n
He surely thought of burnt-out versions<\/p>\n
Slewed across Peking streets<\/p>\n
And bandana\u2019d camarades Demanding that impossible absolute, democracy,<\/p>\n
Not knowing the sour compromise Of Western reality.<\/p>\n
But was naivety, I wondered for him, Crime enough to merit massacre? Or was it simply to revenge<\/p>\n
The old men\u2019s loss of face<\/p>\n
That the young ones lost theirs too, Their egghead, eggshell, skulls Smashed by their own contemporaries,<\/p>\n
Uniformed, uninformed,<\/p>\n
The slain detritus bulldozed into rubbish heaps?<\/p>\n
Passing the Stockwell Bazaar, My Chinaman brooded on these things, I\u2019m sure,<\/p>\n
But did he rue his distance from events,<\/p>\n
Mourn missed martyrdom?<\/p>\n
Or did he, base but human,<\/p>\n
Feel relief he wasn\u00b9t tested,<\/p>\n
And share with me,<\/p>\n
And all the Glassford Street flaneurs, The moral luxury of safe indignation?<\/p>\n
LD<\/em><\/p>\n Source\uff1ahttp:\/\/theherald.newspaperdirect.com\/epaper\/viewer.aspx<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I saw him near George, not Tiananmen, Sq … Continue reading