Yucheng Tao

Tuol Sleng
like a poisonous flower
exhaling
a piercing venom.

The palm trees swayed
beneath the faltering shadow,
a procession of bones

—the dead—

labeled as intellectuals.

They came
like a gust of wind,
They came
like a herd of wild beasts.
They came
slaughter upon slaughter,
cursing Tuol Sleng,
damning its streets and rivers.

They regarded themselves as fanatical idealists,
But never, made the place a paradise.
Passion torched it into a fiery hell.

They came
with frantic lusts.
They came to Cambodia—
its flesh drenched in rouge.

When Tuol Sleng opened,
Moonlight buried people
in a sunken pit of earth.

None to cry those words:
“ They came!”

Yucheng Tao, originally from China, is a songwriting student in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in The Lake (UK), Red Ogre Review (UK), Cathexis Northwest Press, NonBinary Review (including an interview), Apocalypse Confidential, Ink Nest, The Arcanist, Down in the Dirt, The Creativity Webzine, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Synchronized Chaos, Poetry Potion, Moonstone Art Center, Spillwords, Wingless Dreamer and Literary Yard.