|
...............
|
There is a color the Chinese call Ox blood
red
that only the Ox can provide.
If you wish to use this color to make a new
rose,
then you must kill an Ox. There's no other
way.
The color can't be described.
It's best to go ahead and kill the Ox,
for the sake of time and purity.
Think about making a new rose
with petals that are Ox blood red.
How long would it take - ten years?
Have you killed the Ox yet? Then, its ten
years
after that.
Have you named it? Names are important.
You should not call it "Ox Blood Red,"
but something more like "China Glory"
or
perhaps "New Hope" - the "New
Hope Rose."
Then, after perfection, awards and medals
and
bushes of the roses standing proudly in the
sunlight,
you could look closely at one of the more
perfect petals
and recall the dying Ox, his terrible horns,
his large eyes, his blood that ran warm into
your cup,
and hopefully exclaim:
"Yes! That's it. It is the same."
_______________________________________________________
Breaking with my long held resistance to
explicating or explaining my own work I will
say the following about this poem: The Ox
symbolizes the Communist regime; the blood
of the Ox represents the “life blood” of
the Chinese people, and the potential for
that people to be free. What must be retained
is the sense of one people, united, but with
liberty – and what must be killed is the
repression of thought and political freedom.
When I say” “…only the Ox can provide” I
mean that is where the only beginning can
occur – i.e. with the current situation
|
|
