Who Speaks for the People?


copyright 2000 Jennifer Ley, police photo credit Bill Marsh
first published as part of the D2K Image Event at SunbrellaNet

Sing a world body electric,
shout down Hollywood's
Mekong memories.
Baud
can carry
what so many were not allowed
to breathe into air:
document the limb-less repercussions of a time
now silted with skulls beneath
too many mothers' memories.

My prayer? May the baud gods carry
this traveler's saffron offering,
a transmission for change.
We all seek shelter under the satellite-heavy sky, whether in Buddha's welcoming arms or the shade of a monk's
wat-shaped umbrella
from all things hideously Rouge,
or White.

Who speaks now?
It can be you.