Fruits of War
Platters of ginger chicken
bowls of steaming pho,
summer rolls with shrimp,
small dishes of nuoc mam
and thick dark coffee with sweet
condensed milk over ice.
A feast from the land of My Lai
and Ho Chi Minh, the fall
of Saigon and broken lives
of a protracted, hollow war.
How long will it be and how many legs
and lives will be lost
in another such venture until our cities
are dotted with other fine restaurants
serving kadu chalow, aushak,
fesenjam and sweet ferni?
by Contributing Poet Margaret Mullins Copyright © 2010
VWP 2014 First published in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review #35 Fall 2010
Platters of ginger chicken
bowls of steaming pho,
summer rolls with shrimp,
small dishes of nuoc mam
and thick dark coffee with sweet
condensed milk over ice.
A feast from the land of My Lai
and Ho Chi Minh, the fall
of Saigon and broken lives
of a protracted, hollow war.
How long will it be and how many legs
and lives will be lost
in another such venture until our cities
are dotted with other fine restaurants
serving kadu chalow, aushak,
fesenjam and sweet ferni?
by Contributing Poet Margaret Mullins Copyright © 2010
VWP 2014 First published in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review #35 Fall 2010
Bio: Margaret Mullins lives in downtown Baltimore.
She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, the editor of Manorborn 2009: The Water Issue
(Abecedarian Press) and author of Family Constellation (Finishing Line Press, 2012.)
Her poetry has appeared on Writer’s Almanac and been read by Garrison Keillor on NPR.
She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, the editor of Manorborn 2009: The Water Issue
(Abecedarian Press) and author of Family Constellation (Finishing Line Press, 2012.)
Her poetry has appeared on Writer’s Almanac and been read by Garrison Keillor on NPR.
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