Audrey Chin
Feb 23, 20141 min
Updated: Apr 10, 2021
No pictures, just some words describing a scene while waiting for a flight in the domestic terminal at Yangon Airport.
They were five
Off the plane
Crossing the airport hall
In jungle green
In control – the tallest
A ranger hat slouched over his head
Protecting a face already turned to stone
On the right flank – the one just grown
His teak brown cheeks newly shaven
Smooth as planed wood and as unmoved
Then two more – pushing a baggage cart
Captives? Cargo? Kin?
I couldn’t say …
One was a woman with an idiot’s smile
Gawking here and there at the newness of us all
One leg dragging
Next to her a stick man almost bald
With black eyes that stared and stared
He had a left hand that fluttered like a crow
Up to scratch his scabby head it went
Then down again to circle and re-circle the other wrist
Where
A manacle or cuff
Might recently have been
And bringing up the rear – the half grown one
Not tall enough and not yet seasoned
His teeth gritting as if his soul depended on it
My overactive imagination?
Perhaps…
What I know for sure
They were five
In jungle green
Off the plane
Crossing the airport hall
A story I couldn’t understand