Meditate. Meditate,
echoes the yoga teacher.
Find your mantra. Déjàvu.
Déjàvu. Yesterday the Dalai Lama,
leader of all tranquil spirits,
oneness of life, ruler of the compass's
four points reflected how Communist Chinese
are detaining monks, disappearing families. Déjàvu.
Déjàvu. Since 1949 when the Chinese marched over
the mountains, more than one million Tibetans
have vanished
like thin silent clouds.
Chinese "work-teams" have sterilized Tibetan females.
Banned Tibetan talk in the markets.
Now when they ask for rice, Tibetan women
say please, please in Cantonese.
Tibetan girls forced to marry Chinese men.
Déjàvu. Déjàvu. Genocide.
No more wide-eyed, dark-skinned babies
should enter the high Himalayan air.
No more peace beneath the roof of the sky.
No more tranquility at the top of the world.
Déjàvu. Déjàvu. Purges.
Artifacts, monasteries, temples destroyed.
"Re-education" is an oxymoron.
No more compassion in Lhasa,
holy city of enlightened hearts.
No more Panchen Lama, Dalai
Lama, no more Tenzin Gyatso,
Tenzing Norkey.
No more Buddhists.
No more sherpas.
No more Shangra-La.