Final Wish

Gul Zahar, the 90 year old Rohingya refugee who
passed away recently in Kupalong refugee camp in
Bangladesh. She never lived to see her final wish of
returning to a peaceful Myanmar fulfilled.
This poem is to her memory.
Photo Courtesy: UNHCR

All of twenty five years,

Each moment racked by a spate of tears,

I've been betrayed by hope

Into thinking a lifetime of sorrow

Would bring forth a new tomorrow.

Myanmar, I wish I was your Genie

So I could clinch your soil

Once again, in the ball of my fist.

Hate would hear my voice and recoil,

And I will grant your seeds this final wish:

They will run away nevermore!

Now my soul returns to its Maker

My eyes unseeing the salvation of Myanmar.

My body expires after ninety years sojourn

In exile in the makeshift tents of Kupalong.

My one regret remains that lost final wish,

I missed my long walk to freedom and peace.

Akpan