Inle Illusion
Photo by Paola Caronni
Published in the ‘Don’t Give Up’ Issue of ‘The Wild Word’
Nominated by ‘The Wild Word’ for ‘Best of the Net 2021’
INLE ILLUSION (for Kyal Sin, aka ‘Angel’ 2002-2021)
I.
Tear gas,
shootings,
your voice shouting
“Are we united?”
People chanting
“United, United”.
EVERY
THING
WILL BE
OK
printed on your T-shirt
soon smeared
by your own blood —its type
written on the card
attached to a lanyard:
you wished to donate your organs
you wished to save some souls.
They exhumed you,
instead,
to double-check
what bullet pierced your head.
II.
Kyal, had you ever been
to the immense Inle Lake?
There’s a small temple
floating on a patch of grass,
alone,
as if fallen from a cloud.
It’s beautiful:
golden spires atop
candid white stupas,
red roofs shaded by the trees.
If you blink, you can see
two temples,
united
only by the Sun.
One temple standing,
and one reflected
in the creased water.
People enter a room,
say their prayers, kneeling,
then step out
and everything looks blurred,
like in a warped mirror.
And when Darkness falls,
the temple dissolves.
All the souls are left drowning.