An un-healable wound

It aches my heart every day when I came downstairs thinking of what happened to you that morning. You must have felt really bad walking down the stairs in your serious condition before you collapsed in the bathroom.

It aches my heart remembering when you desperately tried to breath and couldn’t. You were in my arms but I was so helpless to keep your life from leaving me.

It aches my heart when I look at pretty things, big and small, that you collected and decorated around the house. It seems like you have left your touch, your scent in every room and on every wall.

It aches my heart walking by myself in the garden, especially in the spring. After a long winter, many plants you personally planted have come back strong and healthy. Why couldn’t you come back like them?

It aches my heart walking on the streets that we used to walk, seeing places that we had been together. Without you, I have such a heavy feeling of emptiness.

Without you, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year are not the same. On Mother’s Day, there is no special one to bring home impatiens and plants for the garden.

You were really gone but your voice, your face, your smile, your scent are still here. Your absence leaves an un-healable wound in my heart…

May, 2007

Laments of the 21th century
(Re-visited)

In the name of democracy
You came to destroy a country
Of many thousand years of culture and civilization
And to build your own model

In the name of democracy
You send your own soldiers
To search and destroy every home
Until no one can disagree

You will organize election
The candidates are the people you trust
Since they are on you payroll
And the people who vote
Will be protected by your police

In the name of fighting terror
You came with your mighty weapons
To terrorize a whole nation
With death and mass destruction

You try to control every street
But you don't even understand the language the people speak
Because you don't know who your friends are
You would rather treat them as suspects

In the name of compassion
You came to sow seeds of hatred
So the war on terror you wish to succeed
Can produce even more bloodshed

In the name of your own god
In the name of compassion
With you own definition of freedom and democracy
You will not leave any stone unturned to destroy the enemy

Scorching the earth and making the people suffer
That is not your intention
It makes you feel safer and less angry
Because between good and evil
You are on the right side of course

Can you believe in the twenty first century?
There are things that haven"t changed
You can come and change a country
And build whatever you want
As long as you have money and a powerful army

The only thing is
You will be there for a long time
And nobody knows the outcome!

(First posted in November 2005)

Cold House

back from far away
the house is cold and empty
because you’re not there

a lost shoe

for many years
we were together
like a pair of shoes
that always walked in the same direction
on the same streets

but since you are gone
i am like a lonely shoe
lost
useless
how can I find the missing shoe?


local warming

fooled by warm weather
the quince bush is in full bloom
in midst of winter

Full Moon

The way home tonight
Brightened up by the full moon
Like your smiling face

Wind Storm

Em nhu+ ma^y o+? giu+~a tro+`i
Bo^?ng dda^u co+n gio’ tho^?i va`o hu+ vo^
Anh nhu+ ca^y ddu+’ng tro+ vo+
Ga^?y ca`nh tru.i la’ va^?n cho+` ddo+.i ai

You are a cloud in the sky
Varnished in a sudden wind storm
I am a tree left desolated
With broken branches and without foliage
Still waiting for you

Tired

Ddu+o+`ng co`n da`i ma` sao ta mo?i me^.t
Mo^~i nga`y le^n the^m mo^t buo^?i ddie^`u hiu
Em ddi ro^`i so?i dda cu~ng buo^`n thie^u
Ta co`n dda^’y hay ta nhu+ dda~ che^`t

The road is still long but I already feel tired
Everyday when the sun rises, there is another lonely day
Even rocks feel sad when you were gone
Am I still alive or have I already passed away?