Insect in the Gala

Abstract

Insect in the Gala Pyait Sone Win (bio) Translated from Burmese by ko ko thett "Pardon me."I have been saying this a thousand timesAt the party that celebrates lifeThe ballroom is filled with gold balloonsA rose-petal carpet for the guestsHow do you do?Soft music spills over the dim light andFills the glassesPlease take a gentlemanly swigPlasma has been liberally deodorizedStares slice into the sweet crustsOf the enormous fishing-hook-shaped cakeComputer-generated applause is followed byA thank-you note to corpsesThank you for coming!In an aquascaped seawater aquariumFried fish, both male and female, splash joyouslyCCTV cameras are buried in a gigantic ice sculptureI've been repeating "Pardon me" a thousand timesAfter three-hour-long cordialityAfter bumping into the chaste Christmas treeAfter chewing up all the rose petalsAfter dumping the cake into the aquariumAfter burrowing into the ice sculptureAfter swallowing the red blood cellsAfter scrambling with white blood cellsAfter conspiring with insignificant antibody drugsAfter leaving the galaAfter becoming an insecta non grataTo a culture of bacteria [End Page 232] Pyait Sone Win Pyait Sone Win started writing poems in high school and has since been published widely. She is medical doctor specializing in public health. Ko Ko Thett ko ko thett is a bilingual poet and author of several collections of poetry and poetry translations in Burmese and English. He has been featured at literary events from Sharjah to Shanghai, and his poems and translations have appeared in literary journals and anthologies worldwide. He was the poetry editor for Mekong Review from 2017 to 2022. His most recent volume is Bamboophobia (Zephyr, 2022). He lives in Norwich, U.K. Copyright © 2022 University of Hawai'i Press