The Empress Of China

I tell you how I hate you in the voice my father used

You answer with your mother's worn clichés

And in another life, your father hears his wife

And I see his fury blazing in your gaze



An echo hears an echo and my mother's fist is raised

The hand I clench at you shows her distrust

The way one behaves is determined in the graves

Of all the great grandparents gone to dust



Our fathers fight through us

As they fought their father's war

And the same old scene's repeated

As before and before and before

And before and before



And when I tell you how I hate you

Before the birth of Jesus

Before the death of Caesar

Before Siddhartha

Before Ulysses

Before the Trojan war



I tell you how I hate you

And a long decaying anger

Comes alive inside a castle

And behind an ancient door



The empress of chine

Tells her lover how she hates him

She tells him once more

And once more, and once more

And once more