My Lai | Teen Ink

My Lai

March 8, 2014
By Schizophasia PLATINUM, Lowell, Massachusetts
Schizophasia PLATINUM, Lowell, Massachusetts
26 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Happiness is like a butterfly
The more you chase it
The more it will elude you
But if you turn your attention to other things
It will come and sit softly on your shoulder. - Henry David Thoreau


Rows of red streaked his half-smiling face
But when she sung out staccato shrieks
His stoic nature, the unbreakable rampart
Of heroism was ousted in a single second
And soon there was only silence
Save the marching of feet
They were hymns for the surviving
And requiems for the defeated
The blade he had to her neck
Hit the ground with a clatter
His blood felt blue, his countenance
Faded to a mottled pallor

In the darkened corner of this hut
Was an obscured, curious figure
"??ng ??ng vào tôi! M?? Tôi s?.”
He couldn’t understand the words
But he understood the child’s mien
It was a look that spoke of devils and fiends
Of bad dreams turned into reality
The little one slowly made her way to
The body that was once her mother
And shook and shook and shook
Each shake intensified the trembling of his heart

Before he could recover from the event
A friend he held dear appeared inside the hut
And greeted him with a nodding gesture
Before he could even blink
The little girl slumped over her mother’s body
A bullet had tunneled through head
Like a prisoner of war desperately digging to freedom
Before him was not a friend but a product of inhumanity
He did not understand his purpose for being here anymore
He was told that he was here to prevent a red expansion
But all that he has done since he had arrived
Was stain the ground with red

The Axis Powers claimed to have buried
The putrid corpse of liberty
But they are mistaken
Here it breathes, walks, directs, invades
It spreads its siren song as it desires
Staining the ground with red
Paling new faces with white
Bruising new bodies with blue
Let the mortal tongues awake
Let all that breathe partake
Let atrocities lead them to freedom
My country ‘tis of thee


The author's comments:
Although I am fully Vietnamese, I never really looked into the history of Vietnam nor embraced my heritage. Recently, after learning about the Cold War and its proxy wars, I was compelled to do some research on the Vietnam War. The accounts of the My Lai Massacre disgusted me which thus incited me to write this poem.

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