Resistance

Two poems from  “Turn Your Head”. They refer to individuals’ defiance in the face of torture and death. The looks on two faces among the photographs from Khmer Rouge’s death camp Tuol Sleng inspired the following two poems.

(I doubt this sort of bravery is on my own list of attributes.)

   1.

I will not look up.

I will not allow them look

me in the eye.

The light that shines there

I control;

I will not comply. 

Though freedom be reduced

to the thimble-full,           

I will have it when I die.

454.

Let them flash my hatred,

let it pierce them;

if they dislike it, they can kill me;

they will anyway.

Be sure lens, don’t miss my steady eye

and fixed mouth;

know that every muscle in my body

is a clenched fist.