Forever Bicycles
Moonlight in the brightwork
of a pile of broken bicycles
in Tiananmen Square,
crushed by tanks
in the spring of 1989;
the twisted forms left
by the government
for purposes of display.
Ancient sadness springs
from the tangled mass
of black bicycles, ridden
into the square by young
people carrying banners:
"Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!"
and "We Are Hungry for Mr. Democracy!"
Do you think the protests of the bicycle
riders pointless?
What of the tank commander's
effort to smash the symbol
of personal freedom,
the bicycle?
And the dissident artist Weiwei,
what point might he be making
in his fantastic bicycle
sculptures, fusing together hundreds
and hundreds of diamond
frames, spokes flashing
light in all directions,
kaleidoscopically?
He's joined the bicycle ridden
in protest
and the bicycle smashed
by tyrants
and he calls the new thing
The Forever Bicycle.
Moonlight in the brightwork
of a pile of broken bicycles
in Tiananmen Square,
crushed by tanks
in the spring of 1989;
the twisted forms left
by the government
for purposes of display.
Ancient sadness springs
from the tangled mass
of black bicycles, ridden
into the square by young
people carrying banners:
"Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!"
and "We Are Hungry for Mr. Democracy!"
Do you think the protests of the bicycle
riders pointless?
What of the tank commander's
effort to smash the symbol
of personal freedom,
the bicycle?
And the dissident artist Weiwei,
what point might he be making
in his fantastic bicycle
sculptures, fusing together hundreds
and hundreds of diamond
frames, spokes flashing
light in all directions,
kaleidoscopically?
He's joined the bicycle ridden
in protest
and the bicycle smashed
by tyrants
and he calls the new thing
The Forever Bicycle.
©Daniel Dahlquist