Uprise

Two guards protected by scuffed metal armor,

and draped in a faded red cloth,

take a citizen to his next life.

The overseer’s dogs had done good.

 

All participants in the New Citizens’ Movement, a campaign for civil and human rights have been detained since the summer. Criminal investigations against them are proceeding, and all of them are likely to receive heavy sentences.

 

A desert,

The sun relentlessly beating down,

Upon the vast, treacherous, terrain.

Deceptive and dangerous.

Seething with hidden life.

 

The people, fearing the power that the ruthless rulers possess,

know that something must be done.

A change must be made,

And they feel within their hearts the uprising that must come.

 

The government’s ruthlessness sent a signal that the authorities will not tolerate public pressure or any form of opposition, but the people do not lack courage or tenaciousness, and no amount of brutality will make them give up their pursuit of a civilized society as both an end and a means.

 

In the desert, through the silence,

hope can be felt, gleaming from the distance.

Stirring within,

Shedding light within the soul.