No miracle will ever clean
The memory, bestial and obscene,
Of those who, having fouled their trust,
Grew warped with dread and powerlust—
And ordered fire on the square,
On unarmed people everywhere,
Brave people seeking to be free
Of rottenness, of tyranny.
Vikram Seth
[This poem was written twentynine years ago and published in The Times of India on June 6, 1989. It is being reproduced—courtesy The Times of India—in memory of the Tiananmen martyrs.]