1. A WANDER IN LIMINALITY

And I wade through dusken swamps
Knees deep in red joss paper
My back slouches
Bearing this urn of my own ashes.

Like white fingers the lotus pierce the surface
Hidden in the fog their chantings heard
And somewhere beneath the ripples
A snake sheds its tears, its cries muffled.

To drown in a sea of wisdom
With my youth gladly I shall trade
While choking on mother's milk
And entangled in long lost lullaby.

Decades of pain and sickness
Stripped bare with one last breathe
A lifetime of sins
Pardoned as the eyes are shut.

And even if nothingness awaits
It's naught but another dream.


2. LE CHI VIEN

Tragedy befell them at dawn.

Like cattles they were herded,
Young and old all four hundred
Before the headsman rounded.
With its own blood
Innocence answered for its crime.

Three generations
Of treasonous blood
Were to be weeded out.

Mouth of deceit,
Womb of fornication.
Upon the throne the regent rested
As the bastard seed took its sprout.

Four hundred heads in chains
Cut clean from their necks.
Saved for the conspirator
Who, In a cage she drowned
Deep down in the water
Of the Red river.

Tragedy
Written in blood
Of the innocence
A stain
That took decades
To clean

Six hundred autumns
May have passed
Yet who dares forget
The August regicide or
How the serpent got its revenge.


3. AT DAU (YEAR OF THE ROOSTER)

Lingering in the atmosphere
Like a thin veil
Was the scent of smoke
And of death

Its presence everywhere
In the dawning’s fog
In the cold still water
In the eyes of the living
And dying alike

Decorating the surface
Was the pale shade
Of the perished
Nameless strangers now as one
In the peaceful soil they shared
For their suffering had finally ended

Prowling aimlessly
Were the silhouette of the remnants
Filthy rag dolls, tormented
By the unseen hands of famine.

Reduced to mere animals
Blackened skin and bones
Upon their own kin
ravenous eyes gloating, craving

Once there had been laughter
Once endless golden fields would run
Now on rotting husks
Jute and cotton thrived.


4. STORM OVER THE SOUTH SEA

The horizon darkens

Descended from the aether
Clouds have gathered
From the midnight of the aphotic
Abominations of the depths emerge

Awaken from his slumber
Once again
The water god of old
Rises from the depths

An eerily calm
On the surface of the water
As lightning rips apart
The autumn sky
The earth holds its breath
As trees begin to dance
An ancient ritual
Calling for the inferno
To rain down from heaven

An unstoppable force
Of nature

Once deceived
Millenniums of hate
Have blackened his bones
Burning rage grows within him
Each day

Now in his wake
All lives shall drown
All shall suffer his wrath
Home swept away
Crops rot and wither
Children drown in their sleep
As crows feast upon
Bloated floating corpses


5. THE BIRDS SHALL CARRY MY BONES HOME

"Who went back to South Vietnam?
Bring my bones with me"

Pale eyes gazed at the setting sun
Bright flames danced on weathered skin
Southbound the feeble heart yearned

In exile, only the birds harked his cries

Sorrow walked in his steps
Longing warmed his bed at night
In dreams only the torments ceased

Where he drowned in pools of memory

Decrepitude greeted at his gate
Winter came as birds headed south
Cloaked him in a northern solitude

Came the mornings misery waited
Cursed,
Cursed to feed on life's bitter milk
To wither on a day
When no one knows

In a foreign land
A foreign tongue
Never again shall he taste
The southern motherly warm

Forever in foreign soil
Shall his bones lay

Alas, sorrows turned to ashes
And longing into stone
On a lonely plaque
Engraved his eternal will

Oh he who ventures southward
Pray, take my bones with thee.


6. MY DREAMS OF MALARIA

Piercing through shades of emerald
Around me the vibrant sunlight dances
Yet it's so cold,
So cold.

Here I lie, surrounded yet alone
Among the breath of dying men.
Far from home, left here to die
In this green haven, forever we dwell.

A burning flame, that a thousand breezes can't extinguish
A chilling frost, that a thousand suns can't thaw.

In my feverish dreams
Her frostbitten fingers caressing
Lighting the coldest of fires
From the depths of this soul
A chill from the marrow
Of these frail feeble bones.

I am but a pale lifeless shade
As hair abandons my scalp
Each morning, colors seem to fade
Distorted grow the nightingale's songs
A thousand suns burn around me
Ten thousand winters inside.

Springs pass by, still lies this husk
Brittle bones now wrapped in silk
I am one with the forest
Forever lost, we wander
To tread on dead leaves
To flow with the cold streams
Through mountains and pass
Among the solemn trees we roam.

Frustrated in confusion,
The restless souls wonder
If they will ever be found?

Naught, but forgotten, we are.