plus Pemskool is a poet organization operating mainly out of Myanmar, though there are a few contributing poets living elsewhere in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. My Burmese is not quite up to par for a proper reading of the website, but I have plans to interview one or two of the poets for maximum input. Until then, I’m transcribing one of the poems in English which I copied from a xeroxed copy, handed to me at the Nada Gordon Flarf Poetry event. More to come!

Where Have You Put Away My Pussy?

for pussy riot

She has bulging kitty eyes

She has after eight whiskers

She rubs gently against your legs

Whene’er fed, she curls up into a little heap of love

Has anyone eaten my pussy?

Has anyone played with my pussy?

Pussy – that supple breeze still flutters

Pussy – rainflakes titter-tatter, snowdrops pitter-patter

Pussy – you might be drenched and trembling by now

Pussy – you have tongued your favorite white milk

Pussy – a last ditch fight in Baghdad

Pussy – an activist in Syria

Pussy – a thin veil over the Arab world

Pussy – how will you ride this spring

Pussy – no politics in conversation, please!

The final message left offline by a citizen journalist: According to eyewitnesses, the pussy,

Hugging a fluorescent red gourd, purrs after porking out on big-and-small-spaced lines.

Only one of her ears flaps as she tries to install a pirated wing of a bird called ‘phenomena’

from her thumb drive. Pussy, don’t you flirt

With yellow dogs!

Pandora

Translated from the Burmese by Ko Ko Thett