Hai Ba Trung
for Julie Vo
When the men come,
When they say to us, “We are warriors and emperors.
You shall submit to us.”
When they say,
“You are the moon.
You shall reflect our light.”
When they say,
“We shall rule this land, and
Your bodies are ours.”
When they say,
“The gods have ordained it.
Their prophets foretold it.
And all wisdom affirms our preeminence is both
Natural and just.”
My sister, may we then be
Like those sisters
Beloved of their father
Who stood on the backs of elephants
And led into battle an army of women and men
Who would not be conquered.
Women who each had many husbands
Because they refused to learn
Submission or chastity.
May we, like those sisters,
Make a pact, that if we succeed
We shall, as they did, proclaim Ourselves kings,
And birth our own nation,
And may we, like those divine sisters,
Choose the time of our passing,
Drowned but never bowed.
May we nourish the land for
A thousand years,
And, when the last invader is beaten back,
Arise, venerated as gods,
Celebrated in song and tale.
On the walls of the cities
Let them paint us, majestic,
Two sisters cheerfully riding
Elephants forever into battle.
When the Americans came,
They made excuses,
Said the women fought because the Viet Cong were desperate.
They made movies in which
Boys are surprised by the girl with a gun.
Her braids flow behind her.
They declare her unnatural.
Arrogant fools,
They did not learn
What China has known for 2000 years,
What you taught me twenty years ago,
That there is a land
Where sisters are born
To lead, to struggle, and to rule.
by Contributing Poet Kathy Silvey Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in Kathy Silvey’s book Herstories, Literary Alchemy Press, 2018.
for Julie Vo
When the men come,
When they say to us, “We are warriors and emperors.
You shall submit to us.”
When they say,
“You are the moon.
You shall reflect our light.”
When they say,
“We shall rule this land, and
Your bodies are ours.”
When they say,
“The gods have ordained it.
Their prophets foretold it.
And all wisdom affirms our preeminence is both
Natural and just.”
My sister, may we then be
Like those sisters
Beloved of their father
Who stood on the backs of elephants
And led into battle an army of women and men
Who would not be conquered.
Women who each had many husbands
Because they refused to learn
Submission or chastity.
May we, like those sisters,
Make a pact, that if we succeed
We shall, as they did, proclaim Ourselves kings,
And birth our own nation,
And may we, like those divine sisters,
Choose the time of our passing,
Drowned but never bowed.
May we nourish the land for
A thousand years,
And, when the last invader is beaten back,
Arise, venerated as gods,
Celebrated in song and tale.
On the walls of the cities
Let them paint us, majestic,
Two sisters cheerfully riding
Elephants forever into battle.
When the Americans came,
They made excuses,
Said the women fought because the Viet Cong were desperate.
They made movies in which
Boys are surprised by the girl with a gun.
Her braids flow behind her.
They declare her unnatural.
Arrogant fools,
They did not learn
What China has known for 2000 years,
What you taught me twenty years ago,
That there is a land
Where sisters are born
To lead, to struggle, and to rule.
by Contributing Poet Kathy Silvey Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in Kathy Silvey’s book Herstories, Literary Alchemy Press, 2018.
Bio: Kathy Silvey is a professor of English at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, CA. Her poetry, fiction, and humor have appeared in her book of poems Herstories published by Literary Alchemy, The LA Fiction Anthology published by Red Hen Press, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendencies, respectively. She lives with child, father, brother, Shih-Tzu, and cat in Santa Ana.
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