The Longhua Revolutionary
He lies half dead
Within the ground
Module like in form
Head flat down
Neck arched, descending
Arm held up
An arising
Hand poised tray like
Vaulted, an offering
Progress, moving forward
Knee rising from the ground
Ready to stand up
Enabling control
Ahead, forefront
Central winding platform
Offerings laid
Gestures of remembrance
Bronze plates engraved
Names of the fallen
The communist struggle
Empty wheelchair pushed
Disabled by conflict
Human loss and sacrifice
Those no longer present
Foliage towering high
A lining parameter
Woodland grown through centuries
Heights to magnitude
Ground space taken
The Buddhist Temple land
Red force of communism
Re-claiming sacred land
There own lost to conflict
Taken from the opposition
For the opposer’s
A modern Shanghai
Communist dictatorship relaxed
Religion and Spirituality
Allowed to return
Beliefs and choice
Enabled not suppressed
New Freedoms
Individuality
Self-direction
Expression
Contemporary culture
Forward-looking
Progress..
The Longhua Revolutionary is the latest free flow text work from Alison Little. It responds to a photo viewed at the Shanghai Sacred exhibition at the VG&M in Liverpool. The statue is based at the Longhua Temple in Shanghai.
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