SEPTEMBER 2007

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Poetic Justice

by Kyi May Kaung

So now they’ve got
Exactly
the kind of
men and women
they wanted
to follow them
through fire and water
to die for them.

Those out of breath forever
running after flapping flags
first this way and then
the other —
Dante’s seven layers
of Hell —purgatorial topo-
graphy.

They will say
black is white
and white is black
it is not difficult
for such people
after all we know
tongues don’t have
bones.

But the children? The children I think
of all ages
still say rashly
the emperor has
no
clothes.

Kyi May Kaung

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.) is a specialist on Burma and oppressive systems. She has worked in international radio and as a senior researcher and analyst affiliated with the Burmese democratic government in exile. Since 2005 she has been writing and painting full time. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in WRR. She now divides her time between Washington, DC and S.E. Asia. BLOG: http://kyimaykaung.blogspot.com KYI MAY KAUNG IN THIS EDITION: POEM: Burma and Iraq: For DC Poets Against War PROFILE: Kyi May Kaung — Activist, Artist, and Poet in Exile SPOTLIGHT: Shrimp Shelling & Tuna Canning in Mahachai, Thailand — Part 1