Statelessness
a poem
More than 740,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after Myanmarese ethnic cleansing in 2017. The pressure of surving in Bangla internment camps has forced thousands to again flee by boat, only to be refused entry by Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. The latest excuse? The pandemic. Source: Al Jazeera, 2021.
Singapore
A boy sends his paper boat
across the lotus pond.
He has love and pocket money
on this island of plenty.
The wind keeps mum.
Myanmar
Elsewhere, the Rohingya
have been told: Get out! Get out!
Our white elephant land
of rice paddies and forests
will swipe you with its tiger’s maw.
You are rifle practice for
our jungle-green Tatmadaw.*
Singapore
No safe landing since 1990.
Latest excuse? Coronavirus.
In the Botanical Gardens
Myanmar’s Head of State
owns a celebrity orchid —
Denodrobium General Thein Sein,
its petals like twisted metal.
Flowers soft sell trade deals
on this lotus-eater island.
