Burma: Golden Land vs. Rotten Land -- poem by Van Biak Thang

Van Biak Thang
Chinland Guardian
15 January 2008


Golden Land as the painted posters display
Along all the roads and streets in Burma
Some countries in sham still bet and play
Just like a famished wolfish ogre in Sahara
The world yet heeds what the junta chant
While the people away run and in fear pant

Rotten land as the helpless victims reveal
No more can the coloured billboards conceal
Well-dressed to look filled and healthy
In truth the country's been rotten and empty
The world yet feeds on what the dictators offer
While the young and old like fettered birds suffer

Public protests cropped and no news popped
Just like a dying bedridden cancer patient
Butcher shops forced to open but no meat chopped
Only uniformed despots outcome as a quotient
The world yet reads the regime's tattooed skin
While leaders, pastors and monks cry in pain.

Published here with kind permission of Van Biak Thang and Chinland Guardian.

Kyi May Kaung