For Jamyang Kyi

So many years, so much faith, Hu,
such bounty in mankind,
the sun shining through its lens
to etch truth into books.

I hold a mirror to my face, looking at
my life from the world’s arched back.

Steel rods fill the mandala of my dreams,
bars that won’t let me leave like I should,
to leap over the Great Wall to the place of gods
on Mount Gephel, where monks

fire the streets of the town where I was born
as I, Jamyang, wait for somebody
to bring blankets for this floor, some
writing pads, a pencil, so that I may

take these poems home with me
when one day I manage to set foot again
on a Lhasa-bound train.

So many years, Hu, so much faith
where monks fire the streets of the town
and etch truth into books.
© Rethabile Masilo

Jamyang Kyi is a Tibetan singer, song-writer, journalist, who on the 1st of April was jailed by Chinese authorities. Protest poems is asking poets to write something against the action taken by China’s leaders, something for the release of Jamyang. Please visit protestpoems.org for more information. And if you haven’t already done so, bookmark them and visit regularly to see what unfairly treated journalist or artist the community is supporting.

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