Snow Mountains & The Death Of One Child, June 1935
after the hell of the Dadu River
we approach the Snow Mountains
peaks of 15,000 and the loss of both fuel,
no trees to burn, and oxygen, no air to breathe
half of all our cooks die, their hearts
and lungs collapse under the weight
of carrying the tonnage of metal kwoks,
spitting red petals of blood as they fall
yet we remember most one young mother
and how an accident of one moment
wrote its spirals of anguish against
the indifferent blue skies
as her lovingly wrapped baby
strapped in its green wicker basket
tumbled from the back of a grey mule
into the cavernous depths of Snow Mountains
we hear forever the bereaved woman
as her cries ricochet through peaks and valleys
as we such brave warriors watch its spinning
helpless to rescue this one lost child
we are men, we cannot cry
for the children we have already lost in war,
our tears flow inwards through
throats unable to complain, and our hearts
whose arteries narrow more with each battle
we ask, what is one more death?
we have seen thousands
and many more to come before
our war is won
and still we wonder today
for whom do we fight?
who will write this history
no child of ours may ever read.*
Arielle Gabriel.
Copyright 2022.
*Both Zhou and Mao lost children cruelly. At the time the Long March began
Mao and his then wife left two small sons behind and Zhou and his
Wife had had one son die after a mangled birth in April 1927.