Amount of Decency

Old-time China missionaries
Recount a tale of an outbreak
Of violent anti-foreigner riots
When merchants and teachers
Were imprisoned and
Placed singly in cells with
Local petty criminals;
They learned to keep in touch
By tapping on the walls
Passing messages from cell to cell
In English, German or French.

The chain would be broken
If any one of them was
Taken out and shot;
The chain would be restored
When the Chinese prisoners
Would listen to the sounds
Of tapping on one side of their cell
And repeat it on the opposite wall.

They knew nothing
Of what the messages meant;
They knew how to increase
The amount of decency in the world.