The Empress Of China

i tell you how i hate you

in the voice my father used

you answer with your mother's worn cliches

and in another life

your father hears his wife

and i see his fury blazing

in your gaze

an echo hears an echo

and my mother's fist is raised

the hand i clench at you

shows her distrust

the way one behaves

is determined in the graves

of all the great grandparents

gone to dust

our fathers fight through us

as they fought their father's war

and the same old scene's repeated

as before and before and before

and before and before

and when i tell you how i hate you

before the birth of jesus

before the death of caesar

before siddhartha

before ulysses

before the trojan war

i tell you how i hate you

and a long decaying anger

comes alive inside a castle

and behind an ancient door

the empress of chine

tells her lover how she

hates him

she tells him

once more

and once more

and once more

and once more...