What Runs So Deep

He has a smile that belies

Yen Fay always smiles

Has a friendly hello

So very kind

He works hard and continuous 

Shelving, shifting books

A coded page

He runs, with his wife 

The library vending machines. 

He was a software engineer

His wife is a software engineer 

He came from china

Followed his wife

After the revolution 

The cultural revolution

He works so well

Friendly

I have said hello a thousand times

Til today

I asked

Him

How did you come to live in America?

His eyes filled w emotion

Memories like a knife

Shown in the countenance 

Where always there is a smile

My mother had her legs - 

And he shows me a hitting motion 

To the back of his legs -

Broken

My father was sent to jail

They who were once high in

The government 

Became suspect

When no one was safe

When the killing

Lasted 10 years

And starvation

Was not unknown

To millions

And madness ruled

An iron fist

And the country was

Scavenged 

Pillaged

By its own

Offspring  of madness 

Insanity 

Married to suspicion 

Paranoia

Laced with

Savage power

Eating itself

Near to destruction