I
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
The Lady
II
Hovering over Burma
clouds cast shadows
hues of brown and green
crossed by rutlike tracks
pooled on the land
illusionary lakes
undistinguished
indistintuishable
shadows creeping
clouds teasing
soft white lingerers
writing shadows
God's blind view
is ours
angels sky high
oblivious to suffering
journeying painlessly
we stare
unaware of cameras
bearing smuggled witness
for the daily stirring
of a public conscience
ahead a hard day's night
the temperance of the sight below
III
and somewhere in the faded city
The Lady is still waiting
never bending, never turning,
no succubus feeding on the poor
but a lady, iron in spirit,
housebound in her dignity
whose husband Michael
died a cancer ago
while she, proud daughter,
spurned the SLORC*
accepted entrenchment
as a daughter of her revolution
no female Lenin, no Mao,
more Gandhi than Aung San
who left their legacies
at the feet of Judas
IV
away from the city
their stories hidden
the innocents are purged
villages burnt
clusters of shelters
fired to ash
frictioned barrels of guns
obliterating generations
dead fathers, dead sons,
deflowered daughters
succeeding rigid mothers
naked as compost
and SLORC
smiles a name change
as Slorcs always do
believing soothing words
like street hoardings
can smooth out wounds
Peace and Development
bye-words for a soft sell
V
unwritten, the book of Revelation
is carried on the wind
winding a way to Inya Lake
to the centre of the free
into the mystery
of the timebound house
that history that is
The Lady
VI
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
The Lady
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* SLORC: State Law & Order Restoration Council (subsequently re-named the State Peace and Development Council)
First published on the author's website (now defunct) . Read at The Orange Studio, Birmingham.
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This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem