You Khmer...
By Chath pierSath

You Khmer, stretch out and extend your heart,
so as to form a bond, a compromise, a comrade,
with me, yourselves in my soul, to you I pledge my allegiance,
to bleed for you, so you can live free, and be
yourself proudly without reservation, where you must show
the love you have to others, your brothers and sisters,
you extend yourself, hand and foot, one at a time to form a chain,
of Khmer loving Khmer, wanting to share your tears
and laughter, your cultural ties, where you decide
to help someone else just because it feels Khmer and human,
the way we have lived centuries ago, village to village,
in our extended family of integration, of Buddha in our rise
and wake, where I no longer have to beg for your mercy,
because compassion is free, as we are to each other, linked by
this common suffering, this inhumanity we still hear in our
America, safe from the sound of war.

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