She had to choose between Michael and the boys
and the memory of her father.
But there was more to it than that.

She went home to Burma to nurse her ailing Mother.
She did what good daughters do but her mother died.
She made plans to return to her family.

She was two years old when they murdered her father
and turned the country into a prison camp.
Now the prisoners marched in peace for freedom.

She watched them march and they saw her face.
They called to her to take up his work.
To save them from degradation and despair.

But I have a family, she begged, and I miss them.
But we are forty million and they are only three.
She made plans to return to her family.

But they set up a democracy party and put her at its head
But I have a family, she begged, and I miss them.
By her face and name freedom won a landslide victory.

No MPs took their seats as the army took their lives
Some MPs were sent to jail the rest disappeared.
She was under house arrest.
She never saw Michael again.

She could have gone to the funeral
she could have held her boys.
But you are the light that shines
in forty million hearts.
And if you go they will never let you back.

In 1991 She was awarded the Noble Peace prize.
The citation described her as:
The most extraordinary example
of civil courage in recent decades.

For fourteen years she has sat alone
In her prison house by the lake.
And she must sometimes wonder why
in a world awash with choices
we don't seem to care.
We don't listen
we don't do anything?

What age are my boys now?
Will you do something?
This can’t be the end
........
To learn more please go to
www.badasf.org

Sean Joyce

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-citation-described-her-as-the-most-extraordinary-example-of-civil-courage-in-recent-decades/