Original illustration by Pedro Gomes

Listen:

A grain of rice cannot feed a hundred mouths
A solitary tree cannot house a thousand birds

The government doesn’t speak for us
And we don’t speak for the slain deer

We welcome a dawn
And drown it in the backwater

Maung Day
Maung Day is a Burmese poet, short story writer, translator, and visual artist. His poems have appeared in literary journals and publications such as The Awl, Shampoo, International Poetry Review, The Margins, and Asymptote.