{"id":8446,"date":"2019-06-12T08:23:18","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T12:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=8446"},"modified":"2019-06-18T08:31:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T12:31:44","slug":"jack-mccarthy-one-human-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/jack-mccarthy-one-human-heart","title":{"rendered":"Jack McCarthy: ONE HUMAN HEART"},"content":{"rendered":"

for the martyrs of Tiananmen Square<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The first generals ordered
\nto clear the square
\nrefused and said,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people\u2019s army
\nshould not be used
\nagainst the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, the old chain-smokers
\nhad other cards to play,
\nand it ended the way it seemed
\nthat those things always would,
\nwhen men and women dreamed
\ntoo soon, too well\u2014
\ncrunch of truncheons, smell of b1ood,
\nthe bucket in the corner of the cell;
\nMasada and Spartacus,
\nBoston Massacre, Harper\u2019s Ferry,
\nWarsaw ghetto,
\nHungary, Prague,
\nKent State, Soweto.
\nSome would add Calvary.This time they let 1t go too long.
\nThe crowd was dispersed, the gas diffused.
\nBut\u201cThe people\u2019s army
\nshould not be used
\nagainst the People. \u201c<\/p>\n

Once said, it could not be unspoken.
\nThe beautiful princess had kissed the frog,
\nand the hard spell that held us was broken.
\nA monolith shattered, projecting its shards
\nlike the plutonium bullet that ignites
\nthe bomb. In-this chain, the Berlin Wall
\ncollapsed in rubble and dust to the playing
\nof rock bands. The Soviet Union just gave up
\nand went away. Israel and Arafat shook hands
\nMandela is President in South Africa.
\nAnd it won\u2019t be over till the ripples wash back
\neven to Tiananmen Square.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people\u2019s army
\nshould not be used
\nagainst the people. \u201c<\/p>\n

In the front-page picture with that news, three students,
\none a woman, stood atop a bus. The kid with
\nthe headband was playing a guitar and singing\u2014
\nwhat? Dylan? Perhaps Black Orpheus, summoning
\nup the sun of the new day. I wonder in what underworlds
\nhe\u2019s sojourned since, what sunless paths he\u2019s followed;
\nhow many seeds Persephone has swallowed.
\nDo they know what they started? Would they do
\nit over? Or, beaten, broken-hearted, next time
\nwould they cut and run for cover? Perhaps they\u2019ve learned
\nthat anyone bringing fire to this ungracious race
\nshould be prepared to be the first one burned.<\/p>\n

Some say we\u2019re worse off now, that we\u2019ve unleashed
\nUncounted generations of pent-up
\ntribal hates, that our machinations inject
\nStar Trek weapons into grudges over
\nparking spaces, drunken insults, shapes of faces.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the scale of evil is diminished
\nforever. I think something is afoot out there,
\nand the monoliths will all be finished
\nwhen it\u2019s played its part.
\nAnd from that day the most that we
\nwill ever have to change will be
\none human heart.<\/p>\n