xuân lộc,
việt nam
1969
at the orphanage
beneath the rubber trees
the monks cook rice
for hungry children
in huge flat pans,
eighty kilos per meal,
three times a day
softly, absent reproof
or bitterness,
they whisper
that just as fragrant rice
multiplies in volume
as it cooks
over the open flame
so, too, the orphanage
swells in numbers
of orphaned children
ever since the americans
came to help their friends
and set the land
so much to fire
First published in vietnamfulldisclosure.org 2016
© John Buqoui 2016 Reprinted with kind permission of the author