I met a vietnamese woman in the C.B.D
She looked little, though, but truly dainty
We talked over fates and one's lot
I found her charitable and thoughty
The buddhism allotted her classy
Which brought the meeting a bit lucky
I imagined she might be an embodiment
Delivering me courages from unseen
By firm beliefs impressed me to follow
And by intelligence and courage to win
I believed making miracles can be possible
As long as mastering the life's essence
She is an Vietnamese I've only met
By the meeting, empathy and courage I had
Categories:
vietnamese, 1st grade, beauty, care,
Form: Free verse
Nguyen was quite a linguist
She spoke
Chinese
Japanese
Taiwanese
Vietnamese &
Cantonese
But not Americanese ~
Couldn't bling helserf to say 'Prease'
Categories:
vietnamese, giggle, language, word play,
Form: Rhyme
I knew you don't go in,
But I wasn't coming out.
When you're a fish in the fish bowl
Going belly up.
Categories:
vietnamese, war,
Form: Free verse
Vietnamese Tiger Bone Paste
How can it be? That a magnificent tiger gets turned into bone paste? I never knew it was possible. The email I got confirmed it was. Sign the petition they asked.
I did.
It's in Vietnam. Here the tigers are killed and then processed. I don't want to know how they do it. Or what it's used for. I thought it was only the Chinese who did things like this.
I was wrong.
The people who kill the tigers don't care they're endangered. That only a few are left. Their belief, rightly or wrongly, in the tiger paste and its uses will keep them doing their heinous trade.
Will the petition change anything?
I don't know but it's a start. Maybe corrupt officials and greedy hunters and bone grinders will think twice next time. We can but sign and hope. For the tigers and all the other endangered animals.
It's up to us to do something.
Categories:
vietnamese, animal, conflict, death, horror,
Form: Verse
a long parade of guests in pairs, longing for a chair or two,
a hundred or so, and their ice-creamed children,
pushing through the market sounds, the glistening fish and meat,
against the dying piggy- squeals, by the river’s flowing feet
wearing blacks and browns, some with prison- frowns, a tide against
the wedding's beach: and in amongst the throng, some young men in
bright shirts and Ray Ban shades, puzzled by the days significance, this
coiling snake of women’s delight
and as the anaconda enters the marital hall…(like Caesar coming into Rome),
the drunks, the pensive widows, the curious maids, their still pert breasts and
waists not yet destroyed by birth, dance in settled joy, into the leery mirth.
Categories:
vietnamese, love, lust, men, wedding,
Form: Free verse
she says she is tired
she says
...things are not going so
well
she says
she can't hang her paintings
cause
the space isn't
right
she says
...things are not
going
not going so
well
i light a single stick
cheap
chinatown
incense
it worked in the 15 by 15 foot
buddhist temple
red
by the
freeway
for my
son
snuggling on my chest
my room is 15 by 15 foot
i
wonder if
it will work
as
well
Categories:
vietnamese, allegory
Form: Blank verse