Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming home’ entitled ‘soccer stadium’

 

Hakphaang,

 

 

It was my tendency to take the road

Leading to the soccer stadium

To and from my hotel

 

Then one day

My legs took me inside

Climbed up the stairs

And positioned myself

To take in whatever this stadium conjured up in me

 

 

Yes a lot had happened in this stadium

Back in the 60s

I came up here from Savannakhet[1]

To see a soccer match

Between the Royal Lao Air Force team

And their Thai counterpart

Engaging in a fiercely competitive game ever fought

In the soccer field

 

From every seat in the stand

Crowded with the dark blue uniform pilots with their special caps on

Flown in by General Ma[2] from all over the country

The stadium was riveted with loud cheers – soldiers’ cheers

 

Then suddenly

Hard to believe

We lost by a score of two to one

After so many missed chances

And the unstoppable play of my brother-in-law wearing number eight

 

Still that day lives on in my memory

If we are like that day

That committed to winning

We will strike fear in the opponent

Whoever they may be

 

Not a few years later

Not a few from the Lao Royal Air Force team

Avenged that loss against the Thai national team

With a score of four to three right in the Thai national stadium

 

Too sad to say

My brother-in-law didn’t participate in that match

For his T-28 plane crashed on the way back home

So was the end of a fine young man

A Vietnamese offspring or not

 

Then came a Lycee[3] team

Of an early 70s

Full of style and fanciful moves

Winning the heart of everyone

 

Too bad

When the new regime arrived

This team of an exceptional talent

Was nothing but a remnant of its great past

As most of its players took off

And left the future of Lao soccer

So spiraling down into the bottom tier of the soccer world

 

Still

Nothing compared to the barbarity

Witnessed in this stadium

Not soon after

 

Condemned to death with the heinous crimes

The right wing leaders were vehemently cursed

And viciously taunted

As if they were not human beings like us

 

Hard to believe

Quon Lao could go this low

Wonder who taught them

To be this savage

Or this civilized manner wouldn’t apply

To the enemy of the state

 

After all

Didn’t they have the right to be different?

Or couldn’t they love Muang Lao in their own way?

 

Never did we learn

With so few of us Lao on this planet

Everyone does count for something

 

Why let ideology blind us?

Why not seeing human beings

As human beings?

No more and no less

 

With an unsettling feeling

I left the soccer stadium

A scene of so many joys and sadness

 

May those who pass by this stadium

Be reminded that

Here once stood the sound of the triumphant roar

Full of sound and fury

And signifying for nothing

 

9.15.03