A New Journey Begins 

                        October 13, 2013, Year of the Snake,
                        Independence Palace, Sài Gòn.
                        Poet of my heart and I
                       attend memorial services
                       General Võ Nguyên Giáp
                       national icon, last surviving war hero
                       the man who led Vietnam to victory over
                       both France and the United States.

                       Cast of hundreds, only one Westerner,
                       soon I'm the media's favorite son.
                       Flashes popping, television camera rolling
                       I sign condolence book.
                       I'm all memory and desire, war and peace.
                       My mind races, distracted, searching,
                       nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs,
                       language defines, language delineates,
                       language limits love.

                       "Thank you for bringing peace to my beloved Vietnam"
                       appears on the page before me, and
                       forty-year-old perceptions shift.
                       I am no longer able to maintain control,
                       I know it has begun.
                       Truth and the courage to speak it have arrived.
                       I apologize for self and country on national television.
                       The Vietnamese accept, they thrived after the war.
                       T.S. Eliot wrote there is fear in a handful of dust.
                       Looking out the window, I see
                       rain coming and a nymph returning.
                       I am ready now to board the railway train
                       children and poets so adore.

                                                For Kim Ngân


                        ​by Founding Poet  Paul Hellweg   Copyright © 2016 
                        VWP 2016     First published in  Gargoyle #64  2016 

                        Bio:  Paul Hellweg  is the  Founder of this  VietnamWarPoetry.com  website. 
                        For more info, please see his bio on the  About Us  page and on his  Bio  page. 
                        PaulHellweg.com                        ​PaulHellweg.com/poetry