A Boring Worm

By Van Biak Thang

Chinland Guardian
October 8, 2005

Promises are made but never kept
To the nation, forced to obey and say yeses;
Laws and rules are set but in the air left,
And used, when in fear, to the citizens oppress.

Bred, nourished and hatched by fears and worries,
Killing is not bravery but purely cowardice
For a truly brave man is gentle and selfless.
O How many lives’ gone hushed and unnoticed!

Prayers are said but behind many layers –
Layers of lies, deceit and bribery not to ask;
Homage is paid to Buddha but in colours
Like an ogre wearing the actor’s mask.

Terrified to be exposed and known to the world,
The junta confines to a bolted cage the country;
Haunted and intimidated by the truth and reality,
They topple and cripple the learned, young and old.

A word said a day is a motto of that very day
And the motto becomes a veto until the next say;
And the veto is an order, active and powerful;
Then, called “Law and Order Restoration Council.”

The people, threatened and held at gunpoint,
The country, wounded and poverty-stricken,
The junta, seated on gilded chairs with oil to anoint,
And found “Peace and Development Council”, then.

Drunken with power and overdosed with greed,
They blind themselves wilfully and feed
Not from what they sow but from of the country
Like a worm that bores its dwelling tree.