A creation of minhthong.net War In Poetry A creation of minhthong.net Lê bá Thông The Bearing

THE PATRIOT They were wearing the white head bands, the woman and her five year-old daughter, rushed to the helicopter when it landed. The girl held in her hands the father's picture. The rain was falling down from a dark sky. They came to the funeral, the mother and child. The never-ending war took away their beloved man from the family and no one could know why? The coffin that kept the unchained hero, was covered with the nation's flag and laid flatly in the military truck, then carried to the grave by the uniformed soldiers. The chaplain was praying in a low voice, among the gunshots that made a lot of noises, The patriot finally was set free, his soul flew to the eternity. They accepted the flag for his honor The country, the freedom, the people that what he once fought for. Thong Ba Le

The Canteen and The Helmet They lay on the field and they wondered, why they were here but without their owner? The raven haired, brown eyed soldier, they fought under the blue sky together. The battle was over when the sun set. Only the canteen, the helmet were left. The warrior's body vaporized among the dark clouds where his soul was kept. And the full moon blazed with whitish rays over the helmet and its shadow played on the canteen buried in the mud, in the cold night, waiting for a new day. The canteen, the helmet, the unknown man perished in the minefield with others in vain. Thong Ba Le

THE WIDOW She was sitting on the floor in the room, wondering. Her shadow was moving slowly on the wall, dancing with the light of the red candles, flickering. She looked pale, she was desperate and sobbing. The three coffins were seen vaguely and fading through the screen of tears running down on her face. Her son, her husband and her mother were all killed on that day by an artillery shell that fell down from the sky, through the roof of their house on that New Year's Day. He changed her destiny by pushing her body inside, and just laid down next to her outside. He became the shield for her life and he would be happy having saved his wife. Her son and her mother were sleeping across the room. They never wake up from the sound of a boom. Thong Ba Le

Sunset on Battle Field There were bomb shells scattering and hanging. There were tree limbs breaking and burning among parts of bodies laying next to themselves. Guns and rifles were broken like toys, wrist watches, wedding rings, survival kits canteens and helmets were taken by kids who were wandering in the field. People collected everything left from the battle for living in a battered country that had lost its feeling. They concentrated on what mattered most and did not care of what might be lost, by the not yet exploded mines: their legs, their arms, even their minds. The sun also rises and torches the battlefield, then sets over the valley of death. Now it's the sharp damp smell of napalm gas and now the war, the full drama of the war continues on the burnt land so far. Thong Ba Le

A creation of minhthong.net THE UNTOLD STORY They removed the soldier's dog tag on that rainy day. The camouflage-uniformed people then took him away, throwing the helmet that rolled into a mortar trench and stopped, upside-down, battered and gray. The helmet knew that he had failed to protect his soldier who was killed by a bullet that made the unevenly shaped hole, in the right side of the helmet. He felt very cold in his wintry soul. There was nobody here so the story could be told, aside from a friendly frog who hopped in and sat looking at the morning sun. Then a garden snake who lost her way and slithered by him through the hole. Every night he stared at the dark sky, Each time he saw a shooting star, he cried. Somewhere there were young soldiers, like his man, being killed. And the war kept going on. And the warriors continued to die. Thong Ba Le A creation of minhthong.net The Bearing