Protestors at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 1989

OPPRESSORS

You have marched us from our fertile soil
On a trail of tears to a place where little grows.
We are forced to hunt the animals like animals
And then you want our thanks for giving us this land.

We came in search of democracy.
From our universities we came;
Students and professors alike seeking change.
But you shot us with guns and broke our bodies with tanks
Staining red the Square of Tiananmen.

We sought to worship as we chose
And give our thanks to God.
But our churches lie in rubble
From unceasing artillery shell.

We only asked to farm our soil.
We only came for democracy.
We only wished to worship as we chose.
Yet you gave us wasted land,
And butchered us like animals,
And turned to dust our sacred shrines.
And then you ask of us... support?

"The Goddess of Democracy" carved by students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and erected in Tiananmen Square during the protest in 1989