Under Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia, radical agrarian policies and purges caused mass starvation in labor camps. People ate insects, roots, and whatever could be foraged while enduring execution and overwork, resulting in up to two million deaths.

Survivor testimonies and poetry by figures like U Sam Oeur document the horrors, shaping Cambodian and Southeast Asian literature on genocide and resilience. It contributes to global poetry addressing totalitarian trauma, memory, and the body's limits.