Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘almost an officer’

 

Hakphaang,

 

 

My classmate

Or should I call my friend

Had a connection

With the military establishment

 

He said

If I wanted

He could have me joined the army

Maybe sent to study abroad

And come back with a star on my shoulder

 

At first thought

It was quite tempting

Being sent to study abroad

The thing I liked to do the most

 

Yes like a man about to be drowned

Anything to hang on

Was more precious than none

 

After all

Wasn’t the military establishment the pillar?

The backbone of the new regime?

 

Who knows?

I might one day be perching

On the balcony of Khai PhoneKheng[1]

Looking down on the powerless many

Who in turn looking up with awe

 

Being at Khai PhonKheng again

On the way back from DongDok

Couldn’t help but

Awed at the path I might have trodden

 

An officer too soft to even hit a fly

A red too white to throw hatred on anybody

Must be suffocating inside indeed

 

Don’t know

If I would be gratified

Adding many stars to my shoulder

The way my friend now did

 

Slowly I looked away

From the power base of the new regime

 

Wonder

Will there ever a power base

Resting on people

Not just the rhetoric

So stale with time

 

With a flower picked at the roadside

I laid it down at the gate wall

And never to be seen again

 

9.30.03