by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

“China’s leader Xi Jinping on Monday vowed to bolster national security and build the military into a “great wall of steel,” in the first speech of his precedent-breaking third term as president.

Speaking at the closing of the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Xi underscored the need to comprehensively modernize national defense and the military.

‘We must build the People’s Liberation Army into a great wall of steel that effectively safeguards national sovereignty, security, and development interests,’ Xi told the nearly 3,000 delegates of the National People’s Congress.”

– CNN March 13, 2023

To read Irene’s new poem “China’s Steel Wall” click:

China’s Steel Wall

by Irene Fowler

Pray, do not roll over and sigh
But, rather raise a bellowing, hue and cry 
Dollar banks beclown, careen, and crash
While, rising, rogue, flooding tidal waves are in-land bashing
As erstwhile orderly, co-simpatico, congenial seasons misalign
Climate break-down, freak outcomes, are the new-normal, by design
The world on fiery tenterhooks

Where do we for salvation look
Callous, cruel, chaos, is the order of the day
Blocking  out the sun’s promising, healing  rays
Covid ere ground our universe to a screeching halt 
A fragile world, teetering on a bed of volatile lines-of-fault
The next shoe to drop
Sure to hasten the ruinous global flip-flop

China’s growing wall of deadly armament-steel
Versus adversarial American control of the globes’ steering wheel 
China and America failing to blink
Rushing us to the edge of the brink
How do we right the ship
Reverse course in planetary fellowship
Run-amok greed, warmongering and nihilism
Underscore man”s mad-depravity and fatal egoism

Behold the oneness of earth’s quadrillions of united, busy ants 
They neither ravage, rage nor rabidly rant
Be inspired by giant, playful whales, tuneful and on-song
Their beauty, friendships and grace ever-strong
Hold in awe, man’s incomparable, loyal canine best friends
Guileless, loving, protective, and caring to the very end
Reverence; majestic, monarchical, golden lions, nature’s noble, judicious, serene breed
Bestir themselves only to benignly roam, or of veritable necessity, feed. 

Alas ! all planetary creatures put man to shame 
As humanity hurtles inanely, towards an explosive endgame.

© 2023 by Irene Fowler

2023 by Irene Fowler