Bouquet, White Chrysanthemums - Adam Jon Miller

a collage style poem weaving together quotes of former Red Guards and their victims

We were told that we needed to use violence 
to destroy a class, spiritually & physically.
We will swing a big stick, demonstrate magic, 
exhibit supernatural power, turn heaven & 
earth upside down. Father is dear, Mother is 
dear. But Chairman Mao is dearest of all. That 
was justification enough four torturing someone. 
It is unfixable. My scars will never heal. They 
weren’t considered human anymore. We are 
going to throw men & horses off their feet, 
make flowers wither so that they flow away 
with the water. In some high schools, students 
killed their principals & then cooked & ate 
the bodies to celebrate a triumph over ‘counter-
revolutionaries.” If they were the enemy, they 
deserved to be strangled to death, & they 
deserved to be tortured. My mother was beaten 
to death, my father was left senseless, & I still
have to beg for everything I eat. We want to heap 
chaos upon chaos. I won’t be happy until I die.