Dear Liana / Colorless Rainbow

Dear Liana, have you seen a rainbow lately?

Your mother just saw two at once

On the sky above a land your grandparents can’t reach

May their heart never aches more

As the daughter herself is no longer a familiar body

Dear Liana, do you name trees and leaves?

Your mother does sometimes

On this land where winged meranti fruit dances with the wind, gently kiss the earth

May the seeds on the forest floor sprout in joy

Though the dryads fade, besieged by the fire of greed

Dear Liana, do you know the color a rainbow parades?

Your mother thinks it’s colorless

On this land or that land where olive trees grow, it’s the same color(less)

May the trees know the hands that planted them

So the vile savages find tears filling their lungs, bitter than the blood of martyrs

Dear Liana, do you see a woman wailing as she hugs a leafless tree?

Your mother sees it even in her dreams

On the land covered with bloods of poets, newsmen and chopped pieces of children

May the kites a little girl made fly up

For it is a tale or an angel, bringing back love for a child awaiting his dad who left in a blaze

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