John Schneider

MYANMAR MONK

                         The Saffron Revolution, 2007

After the soldiers murdered the monks, he told me
in his best English over his best tea,

they cremated the wounded and the dead 
together in mass graves.

Swollen lips still moaning as the ovens shut.
Then the soldiers snuck off to the monastery

to give alms to the remaining monks.
Expecting forgiveness. Like us all.

When half the monks refused
to turn over their lacquered bowls, 

the soldiers returned after dark:
hauling sleepy monks from their sanctuaries,

dousing them with insect spray,
firing wildly into their final screams.

The wounded scaled walls barefoot, leaving 
bloody footprints halfway to heaven.

John Schneider lives in Berkeley, California. His work has been included in The Worcester Review, Tampa Review, The American Journal of Poetry, California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology, and elsewhere. His poetry has been a Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2021 International Poetry Competition He is also a Pushcart Prize Nominee.