Probation Plea | Pek-êng Koa

My Probation Plea Is Rejected Again

Translated by C. J. Anderson-Wu

1

They shouted, Democracy! Freedom!
I don’t know Democracy
And Freedom doesn’t know me

2

A Cockroach has climbed over mountain after mountain
Desperately, it rushes forward 
but crashes into a slipper at the gate of Freedom

3

A lone hawk’s wing broke
It hangs upside-down over the iron-barred window
looking inward at a corner where drafts of poems lie piled

4

My soul languishes a little bit
So I stew a poem to strengthen my bones and tendons
and swallow a tablet of homesickness to revitalize my spirit 

5

Tick Tock Tick Tock, the world is the same
Tick, Tock, the world is not the same
Needs a new battery

6

All right. Dreams have retreated
Friends, put away your teardrops
We are going to shop the market’s new morning dew.

7

My hope fell and got skinned
so a bandaid was enclosed
in a letter mailed from home

8

Dragging fetters, encountering
a bird feather dropped into the bars
I hear the sounds of clenching teeth

9

Mr. Freedom is sleeping
in a bed of clouds over heaven
It wouldn’t wake up even during a 10-magnitude earthquake

10

It only takes a randomly signed order on a piece of paper
to bend a prisoner’s backbone, dignity and dreams
into something unrecognizable

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Translator's Note: Pek-êng Koa was formerly incarcerated for 16 years due to two charges of robbery. "My Probation Plea is Rejected Again" was created around 2007 and 2008.

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Poetry ©2007-2008 Pek-êng Koa
English Translation ©2023 C. J. Anderson-Wu
All rights reserved

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The 2023 (Inter)National Poetry Month BeZine Blog Bash

Art: European Robin, pastels, ©2021 Tom Higgins

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