Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘a place in history’

 

Hakphaang,

 

 

Looking back

I was speechless

Seeing so many if not all

Young and old

Educated or KoKa[1] blindness

Male or female

Well-to-do or wretched

Joining the Pathet Lao

Purely out of a good heart

 

For some

That was the only choice left

For not a few

That was the right thing to do

 

I myself was once on that path

So tempting

So life nourishing

 

Hardly do I know

We are not our own master

But a shadow puppet

To be pulled around

 

Who could tell for sure

What was the last thought

Of the thirty years veterans would be?

 

 

Would Chao Souphanouvong[2] still opt

To go with the North Vietnamese?

What about the likes of the patrician Phoumi Vongvichit[3]?

The stout General Singapore Sikhotchoulamany?

Or what about Loung Outama Chounlamany?

Whom I once met

A frail man anxious to confide

His inner thought

For the sake of history

 

They all gave their dues

To the country they dearly loved

In their own way of course

 

Who is to judge of their legacy?

No one but time itself

 

As the saying goes

Knowledge can be learnt

Skills can be acquired

But a sense of one’s ancestor in one’s heart

Is either you have or you don’t

 

If they do

Be thankful for their sacrifice

If not

I hope they know what the right thing to do is

 

After all said and done

It is not how far one climbs up to

In one’s lifetime

But it is how much one contributes

To the torch our ancestors have lit

And handed down to us

Muang Lao for Quon Lao

And nothing else!

 

9.15.03