Visit Malaysia Year Haiku - Punan Bah, Near Kapit, Sarawak Poem by john tiong chunghoo

Punan Bah
a grave charges
to the sky

Punan Bah
still i hear the cry
of a slave

Punan Bah
inside the black totem pole
the king and his slave

Punan Bah
my memory of it in
sacred round stones

Punan Bah
a memory made rounder
by stones

(all these stones are round in shape
like a football)

round mysterious stones
that hold them together
Punan Bah

Punan Bah
still standing tall
human sacrifice totem pole

(a slave was always locked
into another compartment
in the huge timber for the burial pole
to accompany the dead to the other world)