Zeyar Lynn: Poet's Statement (rough translation from the Burmese)
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Poetry, like any other art form, can only flourish if it has freedom. That freedom, let us say, is inextricably linked to the freedom of society.
As a citizen and as an individual, being a poet is a matter of national freedom. As blood flows to the heart.
That is why today poets, poets' unions, poetry groups, and lovers of poetry are united in the struggle for democracy, which is the foundation of the nation's independence.
The country’s freedom is the freedom of poetry. Poets will be free if the country is free. Poets will be free only if the poets are free.
That is why poets are now working with the people, and their own conscience, to stop the military dictatorship that is now reigning.
Liberation for Myanmar
Must win, must win CDM movement [Civil Disobedience Movement]
Must win, must win
Democratic revolution
Must prevail
(Feb. 15, 2021)
(Zyar Lynn: My version of Bob Perelman's original 'China')
We live as easy prey for the empire. Numberless zero (that's us). They tell the generals what to do.
The guy who told the gang to stage a coup was very gong hsi but no fa tsai.
It's the year of the ox. We are boxed oxen billed for the kill.
If the brain you miss, aim at the heart.
The bullet blows your life off.
The bastard son rises also.
I'd rather the world not issue statements; Let us be killed in peace.
Die in front of your life.
A stepfather who points at the gun at least once every whim is a good stepfather.
The landscape is bloody-fucked.
The train sinks you in the drain.
Slippages in the slaughter.
Folks marching along vast stretches of emptiness, heading towards martyrdom.
Don't forget what your body looks like when you are nowhere around your body.
Cots in the nursery caged up like coots, gunned up and gunned down where the generation would normally be.
Even the flags flying at the UN make Myanmar a fucking farce.
If it's time to die we get bullets. They taste sweet to us. They Taste Sweet to us.
The guns are glowing. They point at us.
Pick up your body.
'Hey guess what?' 'What?' 'I've learned how to be shot and killed.' 'Damn! Why do some have all the luck? '
The person whose head exploded laughed at the bullet.
As the country fell, what could the world do? Scavenge for loot?
Slipped dreams.
The sniper looks great in uniform. And the flag looks fucked too.
Nobody enjoyed their own deaths.
Time to rise up.
But better get used to mayhem too.
Zeyar Lynn
20 Feb. Coup '21
Pandora: THERE ARE TRAINS, THEY ARE TRAINS
"Every car has its own engine,"
Min Ko Naing said.
We hear the train a comin'.
Yellow spring leaves lie on the tracks. Voices curse, making cacophonies. Are you gonna run us down? Run me down? Run us down! Trains will roar.