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SOMEWHERE
OVER BURMA
Len Webster
I
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
The Lady
II
Hovering over Burma
clouds trace shadows
hues of brown and green
crossed by rutlike tracks
pooled on the land
illusionary lakes
undistinguished
indistinguishable
shadows creeping
clouds teasing
soft white lingerers
writing shadows there
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 & Development
by-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
the history that is
The Lady
VI
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi
The Lady
____________________________________
___________________________________ Somewhere Over Burma (c) Len Webster 2006 & 2007
__________________________________________
_________________________________________ * SLORC: State Law & Order Restoration Council
(subsequently re-named the State Peace & Development Council)
'Somewhere Over Burma' is a tribute to the democratically elected leader of Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent many years under house arrest on the orders of the military government responsible for the deaths of thousands of its own citizens. The poem was featured in the New Writer Showcase performance evening held at The Orange Studio, Birmingham, on
9 June 2006.
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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
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Somewhere near Burma
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Contact
lenspoems @ yahoo.co.uk
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