Two pairs of pants, two shirts, one skirt
and a blanket. A 2 year old son lifted
onto her shoulder, a 3 month old son
tied to her hip, her husband murdered,
she flees to Thailand from Cambodia.
With neighbors, relatives, friends
they travel a narrow path through
the jungle. She has no food, no money.
The others share food with her, but
she feeds only her children. Her
friend gives her food says, “For you.
Eat*, your children need you.”
A man steps off the trail to urinate
steps on a land mine and is blown to infinity.
Women are pulled off the trail
by bandits, raped, their clothes stolen
for gold sewed into the seams.
Three days, three nights. Sleep in short
two hour sets. Finally, they reach a small village.
Build a shanty town from branches and leaves.
The Red Cross brings rice.
This is but one segment of her three-year
journey to freedom. For soon
soldiers will come again and she will
run with her children under the hail of bullets.
(*sum rap kyum, yum)
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