Cafe Cong” Hanoi, Vietnam

My Pictures: Cong Coffee Cafe: Hanoi, Vietnam.

I searched for Ho Chi Minh
in Vietnam, four line quatrains
and the substance of a country.

I wondered why, there
are no rhythms of screaming
souls or nightmare firestorms.
Or mothers who still shed one
lonely tear of the night.

My heart was heavy
when I saw the pictures of Mỹ Lai.
The kindness answered
with foul wrong from gloomy
and angry men.

I walked the streets of Hanoi,
Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.
And saw the beauty of human
love and struggle, pass the
threshold of moral grief.

I learnt of people
leaving behind nights of
terror, and leaping
wide over black oceans.

They brought gifts
from Nhat Hanh, Dang Thuy Tram
and Hồ Xuân Hương.

A gentle light that strays
and vanishes, but always returns.
And a wind that blows
a forgiving silence.