Poem 374

From a Sixty Minutes report I watched about the US airlift of mixed-race children from Vietnam … this was the eighties and many children fathered by US military during the Vietnam War were living in precarious circumstances or on the street suffering prejudice from the communist government and a populace who just wanted to forget … in fact they weren’t any more welcome in the States so for these children and teens there was no homeland …

( I like the image of the plane falling short of their country – ie. no aircraft is going to be able to take them ‘home’ because their country doesn’t exist … )

The Amerasian Airlift

The plane puts down
first in Thailand
for processing
on the other side of the enclosure
the full-blood refugees
bite down on their desperation
watching the Americans
once again go first

behind them the hand closes
America rolls up beneath
still they don't know
the plane will fall short
of their country

Vietnam wants them gone
the white faces
black faces
with oval eyes
spore of collaboration
strange children
waiting for their fathers
to return in helicopters
to take them to 
                             Amerasia
homeland dreamed of
for so long
that no one else has heard of