Afraid to Sleep Lest the Nightmare Might Begin Again

Afraid to sleep lest the nightmare might begin again
Lulled by the magic show, called Ceasefire,
Put on by the chameleon government of SLORC, SPDC…
The calm before the storm is always the bad news for you little children of Burma who have lived in a shipwrecked state for too long.

Comforted by the mistaken notion
That it could never be too bad for us Burmese
Who could always get used to the hardships, deprivations, tortures and military domination
In my inescapable nightmares
Where all of you are forever in agony and we ourselves and everyone ceases to care.
From my vantage point of view I see the optimism of the free world slipping further and further out of reach
from the political chaos of Burma

Afraid to sleep lest the nightmare will come again
I saw the dead faces of the living generals of Rangoon
Under their tight brown masks hardly covering their vacant greedy minds
Inescapable bad dreams where so much blood had shed since they took power
Blood of our children, budding hopes and brave intellectuals
Generation after generation
They rose up and were cut down
And the rest of the world who were intellectuals
Who were free
Coolly just said
There was nothing wrong and we believed that

Now half a century gone
And our hopes and our young men were too

I am afraid to go to sleep
Lest the nightmare will start again for our little children braving in the thin huts and waiting for handouts
While their fathers and brothers are dying in hard labor camps
While their mothers, sisters and elders are locked up in concentration camps
While their families are savagely murdered and females raped

If it were up to me
All of you would not be hiding out in the jungles, my brave young friends
Waiting for mercy from international community who never fulfill their promises

If it were up to me
You would not be hiding and dying out in the jungle and the wild
Just because you dared ask for political freedom
I would not keep you in darkness and secrecy by not letting you learn different cultures and languages
I would let you explore and find out the best of everything from our rich brown earth to the universe which shines brighter on the Burmese sky.

If it were up to me
You little ones would not be learning about hatred and suspicions especially of each other
With the ethnic baiting and bashings they had irresponsibly treated the good citizens, who had lived in Burma and traded for centuries,
If it were up to me I would never allow ethnic violence and ethnic hatreds of any kind toward anyone of Burma, of many tribes, including the Chinese, the Indians, the Christians and the Muslims

If it were up to me
I would not have sold off everything to the Japanese.
I would not have sold all of the ancient forests and legacies at discount to the Thai and China.
I would never allow pathetic reasons to build nuclear reactors in Burma creating another Chinobal while piping and shipping off cheap natural gas and oil to places like India

If it were up to me
I would not encourage drug trades to pay for weapons to kill my own people, remember no one invaded Burma since 1944 and it was not even because of the strength of the Burmese military. The current military only has one purpose and it is to destroy their own people and quiet the political freedoms.

If it were up to me
I would not treat these evil generals with dignity in the international scene
Citing the international, unilateral, multilateral, bilateral reasons…

I would not shake the hands stained with so much of our young innocent blood
I would shoo them out, boo them out and with solidarity willed them out of this world
Everyone should boycott the Rangoon’s faked government

What was it again that, they now called themselves, Myanmar?
If name changing is no longer called an action, what is there left for these beasts to do that is not involved in killing the innocents and lying?

If we all believe that there is no place on earth for
Such a brutal power acting against
such a gentle and loving people

If we all believe that
there should be no place
for such an ignorant and irresponsible government,
who are holding such an honest, hard working and generous people
as hostages

If we all believe that we could change the world with our will and our views,
The change may come for my people of my beloved Burma for the better
I hope that you little children of Burma will be able to sleep in peace and safety then.