Poems of Sam Niang

Civil war started in Burma immediately after independence in 1948. It continues today with the country's many ethnic nationality groups suffering the most. This poem, written by a Thai staff member of Burma Issues, illustrates not only the suffering caused by the way, but also the strength of hope and determination.

For Fifty Years No Peace

The red ant walks on leaves
Under...the earth runs covered with the blood
Of many thousands of bodies
Bodies that remain in the memory of those who shed
Their tears

Every corner of the world is full of conflict and blood
Children and elderly fleeing from its grasp
Its intensity burning like the core of the fire
No signs that it will ever end.

Your heart trembles as leaves disturbed by the wind
Your life one of constant fear
The voice of the rifle shooting pellets like rain
A rain that takes your life

I dream of the bird flying free in the sky
Backdrops of bright colored skies
The dream lasts but briefly
It flutters from your mind....you cannot prolong
Such dreams

Fifty years have passed without meaning
The tears of the ethnic people still fall
From behind their facades of endurance and strength
Even dreams are not free from fear

Under the worldly stars
Man kills but every day
While peace cannot fall from the sky
It will not be smothered, it will not be denied

....oh peace

Sam Niang