TADIOTO

From Pireeni Sundaralingam

My Country is a White Blindness

My country is a white blindness,
an absence of newsprint,
a vacuum of words,
the falling snow of radio static.

But where is there left for me
to pour out my secrets?

I will dig graves deep in the earth for them.
I will tear holes in the white silence of the page
and bury the words of witness
deep in the dark tomb of the text.

Let them bear fruit there.
Let the sprouting grasses shout out their secrets.
Let the blade-cut reeds blare out their names.

Come hear more of her extraordinary poems at Tadioto, Sunday 17th of January, 7:30pm.  Music and performances by Colm O’Riain, Đoàn Minh Trí, Thanh Lâm, Linh Dung, Scott Ezell, Matt Steinglass, Josh Lee, Vũ Nhật Tân, Đào Anh Khánh, etc.