Printable Version

“Truth Louder Than a Whisper”

About Burma’s forced conscripted teenage soldiers

I have marched

In the down pour of monsoon showers

And long midnights with no guiding stars

Under impenetrable fog and dense forest cover

Brain washed and used by the ruthless military of Burma

As kidnapped slaves for forced labor or as human mine sweepers

Followed by a higher education for the gamblers and drinkers

I was conscripted at age eleven because I had no ID

I had no ID because they had never given one to me

Then I was abducted and sold into the Burmese army

I had no money to buy back my freedom

And there was no way to contact my family

Looking pass the helmet strap I cannot see

With military fatigue dragging underneath

The barrel of automatic weapon hanging below my knees

Now, I will soon be seventeen

Oh! How I long to go back 

To the candle light and warm fire

To the howling dogs and crowing roosters

I always thought about going home soon my mother

Though I can’t speak louder than a whisper

Please tell the world mother

About the shattered lives of teenage soldiers

A truth forbidden in Burma

The world should not sleep

With our sons screaming from way down deep

Calling for

Mother

Mother

Please

Please

Save us

Save us from unfeeling, trigger happy, teenage souls

Declaring our own people as their worst foes

Getting better at scorching earth

Rounding up porters, relocating villages

Accomplishing four cuts* and extrajudicial executions of the civilians

Lord!!!!!!!!!!

How can I tell you?

How do I share?

The pain only mothers suffer

When teenage sons are conscripted by the ruthless army of Burma

Into the services of graceless power against their people…………

[* Four Cuts = Cutting off supplies of food, water, electricity and other requirements for livelihood]