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# Blank
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/blank/
- Published: 2020-12-03T00:11:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-15T05:03:06.000Z
- Description: In Xinjiang, 7,000-miles away, a morning sun, reflecting off the glasses of early risers, the windshields of commuters, is so bright as to redact last night’s graffiti: Down with Xi.
- Author: Andy
- Tags: Be The Change, poetry, protest, social change, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

“*Blank sheets of white paper were a symbol of defiance over the weekend as Chinese protesters braved likely prosecution to openly oppose the government's policy of zero tolerance for COVID and public dissent*.” – [Newsweek,](https://www.newsweek.com/china-white-blank-paper-a4-revolution-covid-protests-1762736?ref=andyposner.org) November 28, 2022

I stare blankly at the page, wanting to fill  
it with meaning. In Xinjiang, 7,000-miles

away, a morning sun, reflecting off the  
glasses of early risers, the windshields

of commuters, is so bright as to redact  
last night’s graffiti: *Down with Xi*. The

people, smiling the wry smile of the  
long-aggrieved, hold up blank pages

and say nothing, while everywhere censors,  
police, apparatchiks, [always listening](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/china/china-beijing-protests-police-mobile-signal-intl-hnk/index.html?ref=andyposner.org), watching,

fill page after page with names, addresses, offenses:  
Zhāng Wěi disrespected the Party, Lǐ Nà seeks to

sabotage the social order. In America, I am  
busy besmirching the page, smearing it with ink

as though covering the purest snow in de-icing salt.  
The snow melts down to mud. Poetry reduces to

a mush of guttural sounds, incomprehensible  
to the moment. Heaving a sigh, I make a double

espresso, add a splash of cream and sugar, savor  
each peaceful sip. Outside, a hawk, saying nothing,

carries off a rabbit in its talons. Is this the natural  
order of things? For once I hear the tearing of flesh,

see the sky turn blood-red. No one will apprehend me  
here, cup in hand, crumpled paper on the floor, blank

visage belying the seeds of treason. But were they to try,  
which crimes would I admit? And which would I deny?