His black pajamas creaseless
and slung across his protruding
collarbones
Brow slightly singed with sweat
Uncle Ho leisurely strolls
along Garden Grove with clasped
hands behind his back
He makes a sucking sound between
his teeth
savouring a bitter after-dessert taste
Growing sleepy at the sight of
palm trees violently sloughing
last year’s wildfire ash.
The patriots sing foreign songs
now and wear deader eyes
than the long dead
Uncle Ho wipes his nose
with his sleeve
and lets the residue dry
How can victory be so
grotesque? Like fish
over-salted, he balks
while he walks.
The slap of his sandals
like helicopter thwaps
beat
beat
beating sickly retreat.
Tommy Vinh Bui is a librarian and doctoral student. He was a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Central Asia and a 2018-19 Arts for LA Cultural Policy Fellow for the City of Inglewood. His work has been featured in the Wende Museum exhibition Vietnam in Transition, 1976-present about the multi-layered intersection of arts, history, and memory since the end of the Vietnam War.
