So many years, so much faith, Hu,
and the sun shining through its lens
to etch truth into the books.

I hold a mirror to my face, looking at
my life from the world’s arched back.

Steel rods fill the mandala of my dreams,
bars that won’t let me leap over the Great Wall
to the place of gods on Mount Gephel,

where monks fire the streets of the town
I was born in, as I, Jamyang, wait for

somebody to bring a blanket
to this floor, some writing pads,
a pencil, so I can take poems home with me

when one day on the midnight train
bound for Lhasa I set foot again.
© Rethabile Masilo

Jamyang Kyi is a Tibetan singer, song-writer, journalist, who on the 1st of April was jailed by Chinese authorities. Protest poems is asking poets to write something against the action taken by China’s leaders, something for the release of Jamyang. Please visit protestpoems.org for more information. And if you haven’t already done so, bookmark them and visit regularly to see what unfairly treated journalist or artist the community is supporting.

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