Attempt at being historically based. China during the Boxer Rebellion. 'She' refers to Empress Cixi.
There were twenty-three triangle loves
Each of them pointed and filled with sharp words
And scissor blades with rusty edges
Snipped through their shrouds unheard.
Foggy mists crawled through his mind
And blinded him to her.
She sat, painting her lips bright red
While his mind clouded over.
His thoughts shrouded with sweet black smoke
Blown from pipes of white
That blanked out the corners of his vision
And screened over his sight.
Like latticed doors and shoots of green
And long cheongsams of red
The opium calmed his racing thoughts
And filled her heart with dread.
She ordered him to be held down
While he screamed out against the cross of wood.
The foreign religion that soiled his mind
Which he hadn't understood.
It was early July when he set out
With newfound hatred in his eyes.
The same month he led a massacre
To bring Christianity to its demise.
He set up posters as he set up bands
All covered with the same thick red
That told of foreigners bringing droughts and hardships
Raining down on China's head.
He saw black hair and he saw blonde
Gathered together under the same cross.
He set fire to the Christian church
But still quietly mourned the loss.
He looked at her and she stared back
She taught him more new lines
"Hello there" and "How are you?"
While Europe demanded silver fines.
English spread throughout the land
And a hush was put to violence.
He saw bamboo cages filled with men
And heard screams rise from the silence.
He saw black hair and he saw blonde
Lain softly in the ground
The Christian and the Boxer both
And he took the posters down.
He looked out across his great land
And wondered why it was so.
She tugged quietly at his sleeve
And he nodded quietly and turned to go.
The massacre refers to the Taiyuan Massacre of July 1900 where 18000 Chinese Catholics, 182 Protestant missionaries, 500 Chinese Protestants, 48 Catholic missionaries, and 222 Eastern Orthodox Chinese Christians were killed.