LIBERTY
…for Aung San Suu Kyi

A father’s daughter takes flight
She takes his name back to the streets to fight
He fell for liberty
She would today
To feel his arms around her
But not that way

Freedom’s guns bore his name
They steal his daughter’s chance to fight for the same
He fell for liberty
His baby girl
Would take the fight to
A darker world

I hear
Six billion voices
Calling time
Here
Thundering over the danger line
I hear
One hundred thousand
Rifles still
Here
Chiming around the world, until
She returns

What bring these gentle tides?
Surely more than the green cloth and lies
Sands and residue
From somewhere free
Past the house where power should be

Saffron flows past her gate
The stars align, let them all stop and wait
Then fall for liberty
In a shower of fear
I dream a freedom song
No one hears

I hear
Six billion voices
Calling time
Here
Thundering over the danger line
I hear
One hundred thousand
Rifles still
Here
Chiming around the world, until
She returns
“Little one
Your life is the cleanest slate
On which one day might be written
The beautiful poetry of existence
Weaving hopeful dreams about the future
Breathing the atmosphere of understanding and unity”
(AUNG SAN SUU KYI, adapted by J. Millington)