| Poetry (Asian Wiz reprint, May 2006 issue) Dragon Land A poem by Kabzuag Vaj Blood fell from her eyes, her heart stiff cold, watching the ancestors come for her 9-year-old son. her first born, her life, her love, her joy, still holding on to his blanket, asking her to hold/him, as the opium takes over his blood. She begs the ancestors to take her instead but they only answer, "It's not your turn yet" Blood fell from her eyes, her heart stiff cold, watching the ancestors come for her daughter. her second child, her life, her love, her joy, still holding on to her blanket, asking her mother to hold her, as the cancer takes over her blood. Blood fell from her eyes, her heart stiff cold, /watching her son, third child, leave for the land of Dragons. His angry eyes stare at her and ask, "Why are you sending me to be swallowed by the great dragon?" Her broken soul, speaking to him in a tongue he will soon forget, kuv mam lawm koj qab (I will soon follow)." She begs the dragons to take her instead but they only answer, "It's not your turn yet" Blood fell from her eyes, her heart stiff cold, watching her daughter, fourth child, fight for life with shaman spirits, she once left behind in Laos. She begs the shaman spirits to take her instead but they only answer, "It's not your turn yet" No more blood, No more heart, she watches her two last-born sons, desperately and illegally trying to save her. Only to be punished and imprisoned by the great dragon of this so-called free and beautiful land, one living behind bars, with a free mind, the other living in a free world behind bars. She wonders who this dragon land is made for? Twenty-one years and the dragon has imprisoned all her children, and has broken her heart and soul, leaving her only to wait for her ancestors to say, "It is your turn." |
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