12-13-94
The temples of Angkor
still stand, silent
witnesses to the ancient glory
of a dozen Khmer kings.
Protected by Vishnu, Hanuman,
and the other Hindu gods -
the civilization of the Khmer
flourished for six centuries.
What psychotic fantasies
were you entertaining,
when you unleashed your Khmer Rouge
five centuries later, to drive
your thriving civilization
back to the Bronze Age?
What was your Master Plan, Pol Pot,
when you emptied the cities,
then started killing everyone
who wasn't an ignorant peasant?
How many did you kill at Tuol Sleng?
Not even your own meticulous records are clear -
after your Khmer Rouge began killing their own.
Was it two, or was it three million?
Have the monsoon rains
of the last three decades
washed away the nutrients of
a million human bodies?
The paddie dikes are reinforced
with layers of dirt and the bones
of Pol Pot's enemies -
killed for a Khmer whim.
You massacred millions
and cast Kampuchea
into darkness and disease
for a bizarre political ideology.
A revolution of regression
to lead the people of Kampuchea
from the stress of 20th century war,
to the pastoral glory of the past.
The Vietnamese drove you out,
but your Khmer Rouge fight on.
Are you still alive among them?
If given the chance,
would you begin the genocide again?