Poetry Year October 13

A hundred years and some ago,
a reform occurred of which you do not know,
my children yet unborn will not hear the phrase,
of the WuXu reform of 100 days.

A parliament, and bureaucracy,
a constitution to restrain a monarchy,
bridges, buildings, and renewed laws,
a nation cleansed of centuries flaws.

But in a coup it was washed away,
in but three days, the histories say.

And what of this reform, of damned and doomed,
crushed by dragonness in marriage tomb?
In few short years history records,
such revenge as only revolution affords.