As a symbol of the new China,
CCTV recently livestreamed the launch
of a Long March lunar rocket
its pink and numinous blaze rising over an increasing number of powerless bodies.
23.
The logic of armament is
disarmingly basic:
When your missiles
lift off,
hers do too.
Tomorrow, calla lilies gather over gray rock,
every gravestone, a copy of my country.
Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904)
Pygmalion and Galatea, 1861
Oil on canvas
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art