Monday, June 09, 2008

CAN'T STOP THE RAIN

Burma, June 2008


by Barbara A. Taylor


in paddy fields
the splintered hulls
of capsized boats

floating bodies
in the debris

one cup of rice
and rainwater
keeps them alive

manna from abroad
sacks of grains, wheat, corn
guarded in vaults

in famine and flood
the right to eat

can’t stop the rain--
from selfish soldiers
a diet of frogs


Barbara A. Taylor’s haiku and short form poems have appeared on Sketchbook, Shamrock, Stylus, Lynx, Simply Haiku, Three Lights Gallery, Tiny Words, Kokako, Eucalypt, Moonset, Contemporary Haibun, Modern English Tanka, and others, including recent anthologies, Landfall and Atlas Poetica. Her diverse poems with audio are at http://batsword.tripod.com/.

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