Posted by this is a companion piece to my earlier Cosmos Excellent Vietnam Adventures. Here are my Vietnam theme poems for your enjoyment.
plus two poems on Cambodia based on a FB posting by my friend Bill DeFleuri
Cosmos’s Excellent Vietnam Journeys
updated to reflect publication in Kelp Journal October 1, 2019
Seeing Ghosts
I walk around the streets
Of old Saigon
Seeing sensing the undead
The ghosts of the war
That haunted life
So many years ago
So many people died
For a war
That never should have been fought
For reasons that are still not clear
A great tragedy unfolded
In a land half away
Around the world
The ghosts smile at me
And then they disappear
Leaving me in the present
Life goes on
Old Ghosts
Old ghosts wandering the streets of old Saigon
Lost spirits of the dead
Died during the endless wars
Ghostly apparitions around every corner
Here was Kilroy
and his gang of soldiers
Over there were the Viet Cong
Waiting to kill them
Saigon is filled with memories like that
Terrible times were had here in Old Saigon
Silently the ghosts parade the city streets
As the tourists drink in the bars
Mastering the Saigon Shuffle
When I first visited Saigon
Learning the Saigon Shuffle
Was difficult
And now 24 years later
It all seems to be coming back
There is an art to crossing the street
Dodging the motor cyclists, the taxis, the private cars
The bikes and other pedestrians and the buses
The art consists of letting the big guys go first
Then walk between the motorcycles and cyclists
Trusting that they will get out of your way
And they being masters of the Saigon shuffle
Always find a way
In my two visits I was struck
By how it all flows together
Without a central authority
And with almost no planning
Lights or cops
Somehow it just is
And somehow it works
And it is still a mystery to me
24 years after first
Encountering the Saigon shuffle
Coffee Lady
Every morning
I have gone out for Vietnamese coffee
At a sidewalk café
Down the ally from our AIRBNB
The owner is a pleasant middle age woman
Who for some reason likes us
She smiles at us
Greets us in Vietnamese
She does not understand English
Or Korean
And I wonder why
Why was there this connection
Between us
It dawned on me
Perhaps in a prior life
She knew an American or two
And I remind her of someone
Or perhaps she is found
Of Korean K drama
And Angela reminds her
Of her favorite K Drama star
Or perhaps it is both
Or another reason entirely
But I moved today
And will miss her
Might go back for a final cup
Of coffee
To say good bye
To my Vietnamese coffee lady
Old Lady in the Alley
There is an old Vietnamese lady
In the neighborhood
Obviously senile
But everyone knows her
And watches over her
To make sure
She stays out of traffic
And out of trouble
She talks to everyone
But no one seems to understand
What she is babbling on about
They smile at her
And she smiles back
Reminds me of the phrase
From the hitchiker’s guide to the galaxy
Mostly harmless
And she for some reason
She likes us
And like my Vietnamese Coffee lady
I wonder why
Why was there this connection
Between us
It dawned on me
Perhaps in a prior life
She knew an American or two
And I remind her of someone
Or perhaps she is found
Of Korean K drama
And Angela reminds her
Of her favorite K Drama star
Or perhaps it is both
Or another reason entirely
But in any event
I look forward
To seeing her smiling face
Every time I walk
Down my ally way
Avoiding the War Due to Two Birthdays
I avoided being drafted
Due to a fluke in my birth certificate
In 1974 the last draft was held
And some people were drafted
But no one went to Vietnam
The war was ending by then
I avoided the draft though
To no effort on my own
My number came up on the draft list
My real birthday was in the zone
But then my mother pointed out
That my legal birthday was different
When I was born at 4 am
The night clerk typed up
My birth certificate
With the wrong date
My father pointed that out
She said
Once I typed it
That is it
His birthday will be
What I typed
Get use to it
My father gave up
And so, 18 years later
That saved me
From the last draft
Never made it to Vietnam
Many years latter
I visited Vietnam
Right after we opened relations
Glad I finally got to see
The country
That so many Americans visited
so many decades ago
Buddha In Vietnam
In Saigon I saw the buddha
Buddha images are everywhere
Temples are scattered about
Here and there and everywhere
Buddha lives on
In the hearts and minds
Of the Vietnamese soul
The communists tried
To get rid of Buddhism
And other religious traditions
But they failed
And Buddhism has come back
Still speaks to the Vietnamese people
A different style
A different vibe
Than Korean Buddhism
But still Buddhist thought
Prevails in the tropical lands
Of the South
Mekong Dreams
Traveling along the Mekong
Back in time
Seeing the river
The people
Imagining life on the river
Imagining the war
The past in the Mekong delta
And the present tourist boom
Yet life goes on
With its own laid back rhythm
As we traversed the river
We were transported back
To an earlier time
Following the ancient rhythms
Of the Mekong Delta
Down and Out in Saigon
Southeast Asia, and Mexico
has always attracted
A certain type of westerner
The down and out
On a down word spiral
Why?
Relatively cheap to live
Lots of part time gigs
Teaching English
Or other things
Booze, drugs, sex
Readily available
And cheap
Places to stay
Dirt cheap
And no one needs
To sleep out doors
Easy to disappear
Into the foreigners backpackers ghettos
And escape
From whatever you are running from
The locals are somewhat tolerant
The police usually look the other way
And there are lots of people
In your shoes
I was surprised to find
That Saigon has become
The latest place
For the down and outer crowd
To gather together
In Bangkok one sees them a lot
In Cambodia as well
In the Philippines
In Nepal
And south of the border
In Mexico as well
In India not so much
In Japan and Korea
Just too damn expensive
And too cold to be outdoors
Back in the day
I used to work
The citizen services gig
And saw lots of the down and outer set
The old song comes to mind
No one remembers you
When you are down and out
And in the States
Being down and out
Means living on the mean streets
As it is very difficult
To live with almost no money
And the various side hustles
Don’t give you much money
Unless you are dealing drugs
And teaching ESL
Is not an option
Food is expensive
Transportation is expensive
Booze and drugs expensive
Rent is prohibitive
Commercial sex is expensive
And no one loves you
If you are down and out
No one knows your name
You are just another homeless bum
Invisible to all
As you try to make do
Much better to be down and out
In Southeast Asia
Than on the mean streets
Of the USA
Ghosts of Chu Chi Tunnel
Crawling down the tunnels
Of Chu Chi
I could almost imagine
The Viet Kong guerillas
Hiding deep under the tunnels
As the land above is turned
Into a temporary dessert
With the vegetation burned off
By napalm and agent orange
The Viet Kong creep out at night
Stealing onto the bases
Stealing weapons, food, supplies
And occasionally killing soldiers
In their sleep
The US soldiers
Stay on base at night
Terrified of the mosquitos
And of the Viet Kong
the ghosts
Surround me
Telling me their stories
And at last I fled
Through the emergency escape tunnel
Declaring victory
Profoundly shaken up
By the ghosts of the Chu Chi tunnels
Saigon 2019
Vibrant, vivid, exciting
A city on the move
Becoming a world class city
Yet still with a Saigon swagger
Wandering the streets
Dodging the traffic
Admiring the women
Enjoying the food
Saigon enters my heart
And I know that I will be back
This city is growing on me
Reminds me of Korea back in the 1990’s
One hopes that as it develops
It will not become a carbon copy
Of other big Asian cities
Obliterating its past
In search of a false modern image
I hope it can retain
What makes Saigon Saigon
And not become another Gangnam
Hope it does it with Saigon style
And the people will evolve
The country will emerge
And become what it should be
The Paris of the East
This is my vision
Saigon 2019
Saigon 1995
In 1995
I was one of the first tourists
Allowed in to Vietnam
To freely wander about
Tourism was at its infancy
And Saigon was chaotic
Wild and crazy
Traffic was insane
There were few tourism sites
Few hotels
Few guest houses
And not too many restaurants
The food was good
We saw the war memorial
The re-unification palace
And the big market
But we felt we were being monitored
Beggars were everywhere
There were scams everywhere
And it was not that pleasant an experience
But Saigon grew up
Became a much more tourist friendly place
And these problems we encountered
A thing of the place
Saigon is so much better
So much more developed
That it has captured our soul
And we will be back
Ode to Vietnamese Coffee
Vietnam has the best coffee
In the damn world
Just perfect
Hot as hell
Sweet as heaven
With a kick my ass attitude
To boot
Can’t resist it
Even thought it means
I can’t sleep
Must
Have
My
Damn
Vietnam
Coffee
Right
Now
VC2
In Saigon
One meets
All sorts of strange characters
VCQ
VCQ he called himself
He was filled with stories
From the war
And the revolution afterwards
VC2
Was a young man
In Danang
During the war
15 years old
Recruited into the VC
Infiltrated into the base
Just another street urchin
Stole away at night
Hiding on the big air base
Stealing things
To sell at the black market
Just one of the army
Of street urchins
That became friendly
With the enemy
They called him
VCQ
And the nickname stuck
That is what he called himself
Said that he had become
A VC Seal known as the VCQ
Learned his English
From his black marketing days
He perfect the art
Of wheeling and dealing
As a street urchin
In the mean streets of Danang
After the war
he rose through the ranks
Retired as a general
Became a college professor
Later opened his own business
An interior design business
When Saigon became Saigon
Once again
Wheeling and dealing
Around the world
Always one step ahead
Of the semi-communist authorities
One day he came back with 25 bottles
Of wine
The customs guy said
That is too much
He said but I can’t drink them all
And gave him 5 bottles
Problem solved
And VCQ laughed and laughed
As the wine washed over us
And we became drunk
With his endless stories
From the mouth of VCQ
Just another night
In Saigon
Drinking the Night away
With the VCQ
Future VC
Saigon is filled with interesting characters
Filled with fascinating back stories
One could write hundreds of stories
About the people one encounters
In a nail shop
That caters to mostly Korean visitors
We met a boy of 8 years old
Who was a natural born hustler
He had wonderful English
Wonderful French
And even some Korean
And he wanted to show us around
He spoke English
Without an accent
In an upper class British style
As if he were born to the manor
How and why he learned
English so well
Would be an interesting story
His Mother was also
An interesting character
Been running the store
For five years
Amused it had become the Korean
To Go place
In Saigon
Just one of those mysterious things
They had another shop nearby
A smoothie place
And he offered to guide us there
But were in a hurry
As we left
I thought to myself
Here is a future VCQ
The fascinating character
That had wined and dined us
Late into the night
Beguiling us with his tales
From his time in the VC
Wonder what this future VCQ
Will tell his future friends
About his past life
Living in a beauty saloon?
1. just Another Morning In Phnom Penh
When I was in Phnom Penh
I stayed
at the Riverside Hotel
on 136th Street.
Across the street
was Neil’s convenience store .
.oddly named
since I had yet
space”>
named Neil..
There was also a slew
of sleazy as hell Thai style
girlie bars
outside of which
sat naked pretty young things
Khmer girls dressed to the proverbial nines
looking for a willing victim
among the male flotsam
flowing along the naked streets
Just another night in the big city
these women
I avoided
since they represented
the surest and quickest way
to loose one’s honey
and one’s money
and one’s soul
and dignity
becoming just another
ugly aging foreign male sex tourist
way past his prime
way past his due date
Instead,
upon exiting the hotel
I turned right in the mornings.
At the riverfront
I made a right
and walked
to a different convenience store
where I purchased
two containers of strawberry yogurt
and a bottle of chocolate flavored soymilk.
After completing the transaction
I went to an outdoor cafe
that charged $1.90
for a large ice coffee
with sweetened milk.
just like I like it
Vietnamese Style
HCM Style
like Even in the late morning
there were already
quite a few foreign male tourists
drinking cold beer
in the hot sun .
Some sat..
like schoolboys
on first dates with young Khmer women
that they had undoubtedly
purchased the night before.
..seeking as far as I could tell.
.. to impress the women
with their bold and masculine characters
…many of these men
were older
and grotesquely misshapen..
.that is..not fit.
a true nightmarish
vision
from the depths of hell
playing out
every morning
and every evening
..After eating the yogurt
and drinking the ice coffee
and looking again
at the half naked women
sitting all around me
I paid my bill
and hailed
an open tuk tuk.
The going rate for locals
for short rides
was one dollar or 4000 rial.
The going rate for foreigners
was double that..
..I always paid the local rate
of one dollar
and said thank you in Khmer…
.Akon.
..I quickly left
giving the driver
no opportunity
to haggle over the fare..
..my destination
each and every day
was the same…
The Hotel Cambodiana…
a plush expensive hotel
about two miles
down the proverbial road..
.there I used the fitness club
which included a normally
empty 15 meter pool ,
a fitness center
with free weights
and weight machines .
.treadmills and a sauna.
I began the workout
each day with a swim of 90.lengths..
that is 1.35.km
or slightly more
than three quarters of a mile.
..the pool was embellished
with six golden statues
of Ganesh elephant Gods
spouting
streams of cool water
from their inanimate trunks.
I enjoyed swimming
under those Ganesh
blessed streams.
enjoying the good luck vibes
There was a fully stocked bar
in the pool area.
After the swim
I usually took a short break
in the hotel cafe
adjacent to the lobby.
There I ate a delicious
blueberry muffin
each day
at the cost of one dollar.
One day .
..while enjoying just such a muffin
I had the good fortune
to meet a fellow American
from Iowa City Iowa.
He was an agricultural scientist
He was of medium height .
.had white hair
and blue eyes
..and…..possessed an intelligence
that impressed me greatly .
..an intellect that
was so obviously superior
that it rushed out at you
from his blue eyes .
..an amicable likeable intellect…
a man you could not help but like..
.we discussed the challenges
of supplying
food for a world population
that would soon exceed nine billion..
.the serious threat
posed by human induced climate change …
the resultant acidification of ocean waters
as more greenhouse gases
were being absorbed by them..
.but he was optimistic
that solutions
to these problems could be had..
..this was indeed an impressive
and unexpected encounter
Just another morning
In Cambodia
Stung Treng Beckons
After lunch I went to the bus station
the town of Stung Treng
was calling me
for some reason
always want to go there
wherever that was
that is
the Cambodian open road
beconing me
The bus fromStung Treng
to Phnom Penh
was actually
a 9.passenger van..
.neither new nor especially old..
.Stung Treng
is a small dusty town
near the Laotian border
in northeast Cambodia.
The rural areas of Cambodia
are relatively depopulated
and automotive malfunctions
can be a tricky thing to deal
with when there are no mechanics
let alone people in a given area..
.I had gone to Stung Treng
to investigate a possible
opportunity teaching
at a small high school
run by a Presbyterian
pastor from Korea.
An old friend of mine
from my Korea days
decades in the past
My friend was employed there
and lived on the premises
with his Korean born wife
In a small apartment
provided by the school.
When I arrived in Stung Treng
there were no taxis
tuk tuks .
or any form of transport available..
it was a town
in which you
were simply deposited.
with no idea
of where to go
or how to get there.
..at any rate .
..the job was not available
until January..
a fact I learned upon arrival.
.
due to shrinking enrollments
and a lack of funds
in general..
.I stayed at
the Mekong Hotel..
.which
consisted of a series
of small air conditioned bungalows.
..behind the office
was a very large
and well-maintained pool..
.which I used
twice during my brief visit
not the same
as the Cambodian gym
back in the city
but I made do
and did my morning swims
and exercises
my friend told me stories
out of school
about the Korean pastor
that made Captain Queeg
seem perfectly normal..
.that he physically
punished students .
..that he harshly criticized
Cambodia
while singing
the praises of Korea
and that he had
used child labor
to build his school..
..to be fair
I did meet
a remarkable individual
at the Sekong fitness center..
.an astonishing place
located
near the middle
of nowhere
that contained
only new exercise equipment…
it was there
that I met
Scott Sward
from Long Beach , California..
a lost missionary
who had been in Stung Treng
with his American wife
for ten years..
..a kind and helpful man .
filled with the grace of God
..it was my impression
that he brought much good
to the people of Stung Treng
although it is doubtful
that many people
voluntarily abandoned
their practice of Buddhism
to adopt a new set of beliefs..
. Scott gave me a ride
to the bus station
at which I purchased
the ticket for the nine passenger bus
that would painfully
make its way back
to Phnom Penh
because
no one had bothered
to check the level of engine coolant.
..there was none..
.and the engine repeatedly
overheated
forcing the driver
to stop and pour water
either into the coolant
receptacle
or over the engine itself..
..luckily
I had struck
up a conversation
with a cute sweat Khmer female passenger
that somehow rendered
the mechanical problems
less disturbing..
.this conversation
could have led to other things
I am sure ..
..but when we arrived .
.I simply went
my own way
and she hers…
and I did not
become another
Pathetic looser American
Dude parading the streets
with his recently purchased
lady of the night
such is life
in Cambodia
these days
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