Ocean Waves

Ocean waves:
Some small and pitiable.
Some powerful and brave.
The pitiable ones
Don't have the destiny

To reach the white, pure sand
There on the ocean shore.
The ocean waves which are
Strongest of them all
Compete with one another

For victory in the race -
They reach the ocean shore.
Their competition trounced,
But the shore itself is destroyed.

Little Monks' Dorm

Little monks' dorm at Wat Unalom,
Old and ailing structure, ramshackle d
Here, with faith's conviction, the dorm's builder
P;aced his name to inscribe an ongoing gift.

Now the subscript vowels have fallen off,
Only a few consonants remain
One can't fully link them up to read them
Thus is lost sign of the builder's name.

Wistful for nature

Oh, mass of clouds, so enormous, like a mountain
it's appropriate you are safe in the sky
It's proper your are so removed from pain and
suffering

Yet you are subject to tempests - that blow, push, ram through-
Defected by thunder 's sounds, smash and destroy it,
Turn it into rain, without bodily substance,
The high imperial realm falling to earth.

The Mangy Dog Eats

The mangy dog eats and runs down the road
Look at it, pathetic and half- starved.
With no idea if it has an owner
No idea of it's weight of karma

From previous time. It's a Buddhist belief
That a realm of the angels has no suffering
One can live there carefree. eating one's fill.

Happy, relaxed, in total enjoyment.
Why it it, then, this canine forever
Turns here, scoots there, moves back, shifts away.

The Sow

miserable sow, her body fiercely trembling.
Unable to undo the fast - bound knots.
Lashed to the motorbike, legs up and tied.
Nos matter how hard she moves , it's useless.

She shits and pisses on the motorbike.
It's like she's shrieking , a shrill imploring cry.
she knows her death is unavoidable.
why tie her down this way in torture?

Mosquito in the Mosquito Net

Poor little mosquito, so hungry
It dares enter the net
At night, in utter dark and silence,
To stealthily suck some blood.

And once its stomach's full
Lives satisfied till dawn
Hushed, hiding in a corner - till
the blood
s rightful owner sneaks up, claps, and
kill it.

Butterflies

In the flower garden at daybreak;
blossoms of all colors fresh and sparkling
And dew-drops glittering like diamonds;
Butterflies flitter through, stalking the flowers.

Does the butter fly in fact feel ease.
Or is its fluttering a kind of labor -
This sucking out of nectar tasting of flowers
Just a means of sustenance for a body?

The Fly

The flies come feed on filthy-smelling carrion.
Competing with each other in their love,

They swarm, a black entangle, pressing mass,
Savoring the exquisite taste of it.

Nature as born in the form of a fly
Won't find the flower fragrant or tasty,

Has no desire to sip the blossom's essence;
Its fate is tied to dead animal flesh.

Crippled Soldiers

Crippled soldiers

Walking through the market
Missing arm or leg.
Hands in supplication
Everyday beg
Even without fingers
To take the money.

Wrists raised together
Press to clasp"goodwill,"
And bless oaths of petition.
To thereby assure
That the almsgiver's wish,
His fervent prayer
Be entirely granted.

Some call us "Papa"
Appealing for compassion,
Kindness or rescue;
Some roll up pants leg
To show a wound
Or a leg replaced
By Prosthetic device.

The Daughter

Mother, when i was persuaded
To leave behind garden and rice farm
I was told there was work in the market town
Serving food in the a street corner eatery.

It was a treacherous abyss,
A house selling sensual pleasure.
A house selling women's flesh,
Your daughter's life's lost all meaning,
] mother, i dutifully send you some money, fresh and still wet
Stained by a virgin's blood
I offer up myself to life itself.

Tonsay Island - Trol Lsland

Found not far
from kep, Kampot:
Little Tonsay Island.
As though bowing to ground,
Delicately and gently
The small boat ferries
the figures to land.

We meet there Khmer people,
Those who maintain
wild forests and flowers
and the clean white sand.
We gaze at the sea.
From the corner of our eyes
Make out, at last, where
Trol Island lies.
They , whispering, say
That nowadays
there is people there.

Oddar Mean Chey Province

Cicadas, who in Oddar Mean Chey
Sang in the hills in huge, dense forests,
Now grow reluctant to sing - fearing
The dense deep forest growing thinner and thinner
territory here
s divided by the spine
Of the Dangrek Mountains. Hateful, evil - hearted men
Ignite the fires of greed - until it singes - and
roll the border posts to sow confusion.

By Yin Luoth

Takeo Province

In Takeo state
Vietnamese of late
Come breach our fields.
Enter our land.
Their troops give shield
with guns in hand
To all they desire.
they never tire.
They enter far
We count in hectares
The distance crossed.
I heard them say this
in the month of August,
2000A.D

A news story on
VOA.

Svay Rieng Province

Oh, fields of Chup Pring, extending into the
distance !
These fields, as judged for territory - hopeless...
On the border they are pulling a fast one,
Burying their dead on our land.
Lawsuits are filed - there have even been Formal talks in higher courts -
but not one single grave
Unearthed and removed from our removed from our land.

Prey Veng Provine

Prey veng, wide pains, wide and expansive,
A huge lake, stretching far away, so far away,
There's not "long forest"of the name.
Human activity
Meant its destruction long ago.
The saga of the human race and the forest
it still, to the present, evolving.
They cut it down and haul it off, they cut it all,
Till there 's nothing left of the forest, only it's name.

By Yin Luoth

I love the great poets:
First to cry and, usually last to laugh.
in the sight of hill and forests
it's as though they weep instead
for humanity
Forever will mankind, all living creature,
free from suffering.
By Khun Srun

The crippled soldier

He pities the crippled soldier
Daily begging in the marketplace
With no recognition, no honor
For defending his land and those dear to him.
He pities the Khmer people, who so brazenly
ignore the logic of nature
The substance of clouds. of animal life
He fears the deepening divide from true well-being

Wistful for nation

THE KHMER PEOPLE

Jayavaraman vii
With the spirit of compassion
Said."The suffering of the people
is my own suffering, "When one views
His meditating face, its incarnation
Of will and emotion, one almost sees
Tears welling up from deep suffering
As he pities his people. as he weeps lost lands and rice fields
(With the timber cut down, totally
Lost to Khmer people, on each hillock wand island)
He pities the daughter far from her parents.
Transformed falling into the depths of hell.

By Yin Luoth