The Garden of my

Childhood
By
Microsoft Word

Kuangchi C. Chang Document

"Run, run, run,"
Whispered the vine.
"A horde is on the march no Great Wall can halt."
But in the garden of my childhood
The old maple was painting a sunset
And the crickets were singing a carol;
No, I had no wish to run.

"Run, run, run,"

Gasped the wind,
"The horde has entered the Wall."
Down the scorched plain rode the juggernaut
And crossed the Yangtse as if it were a ditch;
The proverbial rats had abandoned the ship
But I had no intention of abandoning
The garden of my childhood.

"Run, run, run,"

Roared the sea,
"Run before the bridge is drawn."
In the engulfed calm after the storm
The relentless tom-tom of the rice-sprout song

Finally ripped my armor.

And so I ran.

I ran past the old maple by the terraced hall

And the singing crickets under the latticed wall,
And I kept on running down the walk
Paved with pebbles of memory big and small
Without turning to look until I was out of the gate
Through which there be no return at all.

Now eons later and worlds away,

The running is all done
For I am at my destination: Another garden.
Where the unpebbled walk awaits tomorrow's footprints.
Where my old maple will come with the sunset's glow
And my crickets will sing under the wakeful pillow.
 
A Brief Background
• Kuangchi C. Chang was born in Shanghai, a city on the mouth of the Yangtze River in east China.
Chang spent his childhood on the banks of this river as he grew up in Shanghai. Shanghai became
a central location in the rising of the Communist Party. The Communist Party's oppressive form of
government was the reason that Chang fled and received political asylum in the United States. His
experiences and cultural background are reflected in his poetry.
• This poem is about Chang’s painful decision to leave China and seek political freedom in the
United States. Writing in the first-person enables him to express his feelings about these events
and communicate directly with the reader.