An Irreverent Activist and His Year’s End Gift to Himself

‘I can’t be taken down.
For my feet have always been firmly on the ground.

My career can’t be destroyed.
For I have never pursued one.

My image can’t be tarnished.
For it has never been manufactured.

I am unafraid to fall.
For I have never attempted to climb.

I can’t be ostracised.
For I seek no external acceptance.

I am not given into applauses or flattery. .
For I know I am always less than the person that is being lauded or flattered.

I don’t hold on to anything, applauses or condemnations, achievements
or failures.

Nothing belongs to me.
And I am nothing beyond my present deeds.
For Nothingness reigns supreme inside.

I have no soul to corrupt;
nor is there a “core” to hold up as “incorruptible”.

I am only a stream of deeds and thoughts held together by memory.
Nothing lasts.
Not even that memory.

No regrets nor jubilations.

I too will pass
like another dust on this earth.’

Maung Zarni
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