1- Poet Lay Lon arranges words
based on the truth without fear,
not creating things to fake events.
I describe my current reality.
2- My country is strange I thought
seeing people underprivileged.
The Deva says untruths.
The poor people spring up in Thailand.
3- The election campaign means nothing.
The Deva spreads lying messages.
Skirts and MSG are given out to hands.
Sharing is praised every five years.
4- The Party has won for decades, but I still wonder
why does it not care for the people?
The farmers have hard lives in fields.
They thresh the crops working nights and days.
5- The rice is not worth selling; the rice is so cheap.
Petroleum and fertilizers are so expensive.
A year’s harvest earns about
three million riels ($750USD) owed back to the stores.
6- Where is the promise of the rice rising in price?
Or cannot the officials gaze over
their fat stomachs to see the problems?
My villages are sorrowful.
7- Drugs and cockfighting are everywhere.
Police overlook them.
Police and drug traffickers are like in- laws,
performing in an endless drama staged in prisons.
8- Only to bribe guards to get outside,
caring for nothing after leaving.
The youth are destroyed.
The bamboo shoots are lost.
9- Mothers worry about their children, although they are only ten
because the drugs, concealed, are sold near the gates.
The advertisement of cigarettes and alcohol is common everywhere,
contaminating society.
10- The streets are filled with billboards,
advertising alcohol in giant sizes.
The whole country seems devoted to attracting
men and women to drink.
11- Stars also have arrangements
singing to advertise without ceasing
on the stages.
The crowded youth are the target audiences.
12- Cambodia has many TV channels that
try to inspire Khmer people to drink
all the time when they are happily gathered,
they must drink beer and forget until they die.
13- The result comes in short time.
The people whisper about the issues.
Robberies day and night cause fear and chaos.
Felonies often happen.
14- The chosen example is from my eyes.
The news of a girl’s death became hot;
the victim, named Ly Ka, aged nine, was raped and killed
when her grandma was busy working on farms.
15- I remember it was in 2018.
The crime happened in December
Champouprek village, Champa commune,
at 3:45 pm.
16- Yen Thy was cruel, like an animal,
perhaps the drug took over him, made him uncontrolled.
He raped and killed Grandma Amm’s granddaughter.
Everyone was broken- hearted, grieving Ly Ka.
17- After the crime happened, it caused more fear.
All grandparents told their grandchildren
to stay close, not to stray.
Paying attention at every moment prevents danger.
18- After the sunset, there was silence.
The students used to gather and study:
bicycling along the farm roads to take extra classes
without any nervousness or fear.
19- The security has changed; everybody agrees.
All uncles and aunties in the families
temporarily stop their children from going to study
at schools after sunset.
20- The felony caused fear across the commune.
The people gathered to find the solution
by prohibiting their children from
associating with the ones who use the drug.
21- Some moms send the boys to be novice monks.
Instead of their mothers, the temple plays the role of taking care of and
educating the boys
that is a role that the temple has played in society.
22- But drug traffickers are abundant.
The number of drug users keeps increasing.
Even in the monasteries or next to the big Dharma halls,
these are comfortable places to use drugs.
23- My monastery was a sanctuary.
Now it is a gathering place
for brazen youth to use drugs.
The learning site becomes chaos.
24- The silent monastery scares the novice monks,
who are not yet adults.
The monastery used to be peaceful;
now happiness has fled.
25- Although now is 2022,
the younger children are still at risk.
Drugs and cigarettes are nearby.
Immorality gains mastery over young adults.
26- Although now is 2022,
the protectors are lacking.
There are no shields against
the drug sellers and users.
27- Although now is 2022,
my village is still scared, blaming karma.
The people do not dare to shout out their moans.
They are willing to live without comfort.
28- A mother, who is my friend, has two sons.
The older son has been under the hot flush
of drugs and cigarettes. Recently,
he had a profound accident. Now he is unable to eat rice.
29- The son faced danger; the mom had borrowed the money.
The poet sent the money from a distance
a rush to send the son
to the right hospital.
30- Because of being busy caring for the older son,
the younger son, who was a novice, had begun to smoke cigarettes.
The novice now
walks closer to the same path as the older son.
31- Even novice monks are victims.
The wound infected the bamboo shoot.
The parents asked for help
to arrange and show the right path.
32- The novice’s mom,
quickly asked
for her son to leave the monastery to prevent scandal.
She is scared that the younger son could become as the older one.
33- Both mom’s sons are still young,
under twenty. They want to know,
the same as the moths wish to
play with fire, forgetting about death.
34- The mom grieves for her older son, who was completely ruined.
His body is dry and flavorless, and he has dropped out of school,
the society of cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol.
Does not the Deva see?
35- I would like to point to an unexpected story,
which is true.
After the Party of People won the election
on June 2, 2022.
36- After the victory, beers were distributed to the party,
soundly celebrated across Cambodia.
The farmers became lost and confused.
It is pitiful to Khmer.
37- What does the alcohol symbolize?
Do not the civil servants know?
By drinking like that,
all Khmer bamboo shoots will die.
38- Or the civil servant may think
no problems that will be spread across the country.
Angkor Wat is wounded
when it becomes branded on beer cans.
39- Let’s come back to talk about my village.
I act when the village is hurt.
I usually visit the temple
during school breaks.
40- After the sunset, then silence.
Chrouy Monastery becomes
a place for youths who use drugs.
I want to know who they are.
41- I walked close to them. They were interrupted.
Their pleasure was stopped.
They were angry and moved
to hurt me.
42- I knew those guys
well because we used to
study together at primary school.
We shared childhood memories with each other.
43- My friends were pitiful and changed,
becoming the victims of passions
caused by the powerful and rich
who could sell and profit from drugs.
44- My friends were completely ruined.
Drugs controlled them; they were loose- skinned.
Their bodies were skeletal, dark rings around their eyes, and they reeked of drugs.
They were embarrassed in front of the poet and poor.
45- These friends and I used to play
childhood games in the school,
Wat Chrouy Primary School,
during class breaks.
46- These friends and I had not seen each other for a long time,
but our relationships were not parched.
We still know each other.
We did not leave aside our relationships.
47- My brother’s condition is not different
from my friends’. Please notice
his body was skeletal and weakened.
He has been saturated with drugs for years.
48- My family has sunk in a flood of suffering.
My parents are soaked in
tears. They question:
Is it a pre- life’s karma?
49- The parents have wondered:
why do drug traffickers not die?
why do drug traffickers not stay far from them?
The parents can see the drug traffickers’ homes.
50- The police do not see or do not look?
Low and high levels seem to be in a deep sleep.
The police are more numerous than the drug sellers.
Or are the police bribed?
51- The poet ishurt.
I hear and see even his brother,
his memory muddled,
response to his parents.
52- I am hurt and afraid to speak, but
I write patiently without stopping.
The work criticizes society for stopping;
stopping their fight against corruption.
53- I would ask the civil servants and
the tycoons who have bribed
to stop using the country
for business and causing chaos.
54- I would request all people
to unite against the enemies.
The drugs, the cigarettes, and the alcohol,
have wounded and stunted the bamboo shoots.
