sentient

we have come so far from who we are
we forget

we are animals
we have bodies
we have instincts

heart breathing
there is an energy field
between us

a connection without words
without thought
without consciousness

chatGPT and AI
and scrolling touch screens
with profiles and newsfeeds

cannot replace
the power of
our sentience

i extend my robotic arms
so far out
they disconnect from torso

now i return to
the land by the hills
fertile with senses our ancestors had eons ago

to know how to whisper
to the trees
to the clouds
to the sun and the moon
to the horses
to the ground beneath our feet

they were grounded
in their humanity

we have traveled so far in journey
in the name of “progress”

we travel without a destination
lost in tracks in circles

it is time to return home
i return home to me

-dabetswe natasha-

turmeric

turmeric stains my fingernails
yellow

feeling mellow
sorrow

below the chest
naivete infests

breath rests
then i remember
curcumin heals

so i marinate myself in turmeric
like so many of the burmese cooking

i listen to sappy love songs
and be consumed

(untitled but trying to titled) love in the time of revolution – 26

i have all these poems for you
but they are lost to the darkness of tonight

i sit here
trying to remember, at least,
so this story doesn’t become lost

like the words that fail so miserably
in the face of our human condition

behind every light there is a shadow
behind every hope a despair

behind every love….

not hatred…

but apathy…

trying so hard to capture anything
so that the void is not what is left

love in the time of revolution – 25

we all hurt sometimes
things break, sometimes shatter
from explosion of forces too much to take

we all fall from bridges
things splash, sometimes drown
from silence so heavy one loses breath
long before

the stopping of heartbeats
or the will to love, to hope

to love is to hope

we lose hope when we lose love
and

i am only holding on to this hope
because you see,
i am made out of love

i don’t know any way else to be
i am filled to the brim, overspilling

and i don’t know any way else to be
as a woman on this earth,
in this yin and yang world.

love in the time of revolution – 24

Our hearts still beat
even when the war horns have blared
ringing unmercifully

So many battles along the way
yet we come unscathed

Because
we have been shields for each other
and we still believe that
Love wins in the end.

a loo poem

The weight of the world
is heavy in the guts

These middle of the night awakenings
to visit the lavatories
to purge only in the dark

They are speaking

I am a canvas – a medium
for the ghosts of the voiceless
for the shadows of the phantoms
to express and expel into the world

They are just speaking

Because we all have a story to tell
We all are part of our history
We all have author-ity

Even silent dark has a story to tell.

is

you are not
physics or chemistry

our bonds aren’t written in
atomic energy or molecular reactions

we are not
biology and the ecosystem

we simply is
just is

we be

is-entropic
is-omeric
is-oagglutinin

is ist, est, esti
isos

i am
is
with you.

w.

i went to the jewelers today with
thirteen watches in a bag
and one on my wrist

two at home sitting in their compartments
one at Rangoon time
the other at Pacific time

one needed to strap more tightly
and become mine
twelve needed resurrections
with change of batteries

they all run out of charge at some point
they all run out of time, until
i remember the stories behind each one of them
and bring them back to life

it is the end of a horrid year
the end of an abyss

the new year begs for new times
i beg for a new heartbeat, kept
in synchrony to quantum time

i give my hand to the memories kept
and the moments that will become

in time
with them…

Foolish Games

Roll the dice
we take a chance on life

And sometimes life is
a game of poker

we have to play the cards that we got
maximize on the river flow

sometimes we bluff our way through
most of the time we act out of faith

that this time may be the one
we’re waiting for
and we go all in
hold our breaths

the last card tells it all.

love in the time of revolution – 23

this heart needs a bypass
blockages in so many arteries
that lead me home to you

we can only make sure
to listen through the stethoscope
and hope, our hearts still beat

it is a long operation
to keep the heart alive

we are all healers
with our own medicine
and we promise the Hippocratic Oath
to never let go of love and life