Glass Poetry Press

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Volume One Issue Two

Kyi May Kaung

I come from …

(with Liz Lerman Dance Studio — Still Crossing Project — 6-3-2006) I come from — dried chilies and dust. I come from stupas gilded with real gold. I come from — people shot in the street. I come from — child soldiers. I come from — rape as a weapon of war. I come from — nothing but fish paste and broken rice to eat. I come from crows and sparrows shot and netted for food. I come from dengue haemorrhagic fever I come from all my friends and relatives — dead. All my students — disappeared. My professors — lost. I come from — everything — state owned. I come from — soldiers — everywhere. I come from human mine sweepers. I come from — no more — universities. I come from dengue haemorrhagic fever. I come from elephantiasis. I come from — money not worth the paper — it's printed on. I come from her six foot son come home in a five foot coffin. I come from — hello goodbye. Arnahdé1 — or feeling bad to say — No. But in life it is necessary To say — No — often.


1 pronounced — Arr Nar Dé (Ah Nar Dair — as in "air.")