remember,
staring at black eye sockets
hallowed & h o l l o w
like looking in a mirror,
the skulls in rows
lined up on display
numbering over 5,000.
.
choeung ek,
the killing fields.
the cambodian genocide: 1975 – 1979
23,745 mass graves
the khmer rouge swept in
sometime after the vietnam war
cambodia left b o m b e d and
littered with land mines
broke into civil war
until the khmer rouge, led by pol pot
seized the capital city of phnom penh
with the plan of creating a nation
based on maoist and Marxist theories
“communist utopia”
but immediately the khmer rouge
began forcing people back to their
home villages
they singled out:
the educated: doctors, teachers, monks
anyone with connections to the former government
or foreign governments
ethnic and religious minorities
and the weak
and imprisoned, killed, or sent
them to forced labor camps
where many died of starvation,
physical abuse, disease, and exhaustion
those imprisoned died
from torture or execution
the weak?
elderly, handicapped, children
sentenced to death.
(if you could not work
you could not live).
and when the prisons became
too full, they started
taking people to
the
killing
fields
and walking around the site
it’s quiet, grass green & soft
a memorial towering above
the trees swaying in the wind
(but as someone who cannot
understand, a foreigner
looking from the outside in
i can’t say i feel peace)
the path starts where the prisoners
were taken off the trucks
blindfolded & bound
then shuffled forward to be killed
and those left over for the day
were chained together
to wait for their execution
in the morning
keep walking and see where
they kept the weapons
surrounded by sugar trees
leaves sharp enough
to cut t h r o a t s
step forward and start walking
through the fields of mass graves
bits of bone and clothes
still in the dirt
a grave full of women and children
without their clothes
a grave full of headless
soldiers
and the tree
which they found with bits
of bone and brain and blood
where they bashed the skulls of
infants until they died
all of this under
the blaring of music and loud sounds
so that nearby people would
not know what was happening
each grave coated in DDT
to hide the smell and kill the people
who were pushed in
still alive
day
after
day
after
day
and there was little
international outcry.
s i l e n c e.
it wasn’t until vietnam invaded
that the khmer rouge were overthrown
and the genocide started to be talked about
on an international platform.
.
heartbreak,
but cambodians are beautiful people
living in a country that is broken
but healing, in a state of
r e v i v a l
and sometimes in the quiet
it feels haunting,
a generation of people
missing
but when i look around
i don’t see the g h o s t s
i see people who are strong
and resilient
it’s in their smiles
their laughter
and the way they
hold onto
one another.
i see courage
and people who can
look back but still
move forward.
it has been an honor to spend time here
in this country, with these people
to learn about them
and from them.
let us not forget
because genocide isn’t just
history, it is still happening
syria. sudan. republic of the congo. ethiopia. myanmar.
above all the accounts from people
on the tour of the killing fields
had one overarching request:
r e m e m b e r.
and let us never look away
again.