Langour

"Langour"
after a line by Carolyn Forche

Note: Peonies traditionally symbolize
shame and anger, but also healing and,
especially in the Orient, feminine loveliness

1.

The langour of peonies? A universal image:
flowers drooping over the dead of Khe Sanh
and the mass interments near the Citadel at Hue.
The red sun, like a peony, hangs in the skies
of Dak To and Ban Me Thuot lighting
endless bodies marching west
into the plaines des jarres through
fields of white ginger and jungle orchids.
Pushing through elephant grass like sharks
they cut through dry water. Grassy waves carry
the dead in their wake. The moon leans down
to kiss their rifles, finds nothing to reflect.

2.

Young women in ao dais, prim, proper, walk
slowly down Le Loi Street, faces fixed on distant points,
eyes focused straight ahead, neither left nor right.
I do not bother them, though I smile and nod,
whisper, "Chao co. Manh gioi khong?" And when
they pass me by I mumble, "Choi oi!
Dep lam." How beautiful! But not for me,
not even for themselves, a part of the scenery,
plastic props, exotic extras to decorate the city:
Barbies in an Oriental incarnation. And I am Ken.
I stare as they pass me by, their lips just so, frozen
smiles, some fantasy of childhood dressed in silk,
but hair long and black, special extra wigs
keeping things cool in the hot, red streets.


H. Palmer Hall


Posted over on Palmer's Poems
Forthcoming in _War, Literature, and the Arts_