the Deng government

It's been called many things,

now Beijing:

a large city wherein the Deng government ordered soldiers,

most all of whom were wearing combat helmets and clean uniforms,

to enter Tiananmen Square.

mere moments after, hopes and dreams were crushed, mangled, obliterated,

as were bicycles,  left riderless

underneath the steel treads of angry, active armored tanks.

i remember that exact date in 1989

because a friend of mine

died.

he was shot multiple times

while standing defiantly between his mother and elder sister,

both of whom cried as they fled on foot,

into the screaming darkness!

hundreds murdered, shot, beaten by dutiful young men

who followed commands;

thousands more were rounded up like cattle,

herded and whipped and taken away

from the huge square where freedom hoped to live.

and like the historical death of Jesus,

the believers in freedom and democracy know

that the CCP stone impediment will roll away from this tomb,

and a new fleet of bicycles,

with fresh air inflating onward rolling tires,

will return to Tiananmen Square,

with courageous Chinese riders steering their handlebars toward a

a new nation.

and it will be a happy nation, too,

because dreams will be allowed.