dead bodies ... poem by a vietnamese student

we promise one another, poems from an asian war
don luce and...  selected, introduced ...

                                                                        d e a d    b o d i e s
                                                                                       By  A Student

                 (The following poem appeared in Lập trường ( Stand point) in 1964.  This newpaper was closed because of ananti-war nature of this poem).



                                                 Dead bodies are allover the land,
                                                 The faces unidentifiable 
                                                 Without any clothes,
                                                 Lying on the same land
                                                Of powerty and hardship.

                                                                       An old mother with her stick,
                                                                       Tearful eyes, questioned
                                                                       The Nationalist,
                                                                       The Communist,
                                                                       Who live in the same village,
                                                                       Who belong to the same mother,
                                                                       Who have the same black hair and red blood,
                                                                       The same flat nose and yellow skin.

 
                                                 In her burnt garden,
                                                 The children dug for burnt potatoes like hungry dogs.
                                                The mother' s eyes cannot see the future,
                                                The vultures came over the dead bodies,
                                                Animals and men are the same.

                                                        []


from : WE PROMISE ONE ANOTHER /  POEMS FROM AN ASIAN WAR-
        don luce,  john. c.schafer & jacquelyn chagnon     selected, introducted...
        ( The Indochina Mobile Education Project  ,  Washington. DC,  1971 - )