WHAT I SEE ON THE GLOOMY SKY OF TO DAY ? / poem by THE PHONG.

                                What I see on the gloomy sky of  to day ?
                                             poem by THE PHONG.

  
                          What did I see,
                               apart from blood stained rolls of barbed wire
                          What did I see,
                               a city besieged
                           What  diid I see,
                               cops outnumbered people in the streets
                           What  did I see,
                               soldiers werw even more numerous than cops:
                            At the crossroads to day,
                               and old  woman is screming over the loss of her son
                            He quit school
                               smashed everything on his road to the future
                             Her frail body in clothes whiter than whitness fell on
                                                                                 the bitumen road
                             Have you died,
                                    my sister aged only eighteen
                                                    who has not known love
                             You have left us,
                                      cowards of thirty years of age
                             Who will write two words Vietnam
                                    on the gloomy sky of today?
                              I look forward to seeing
                                     a horizon bathed in blood
                            "Down with tyranny
                                               down with repression !"


                             What I see,
                                          alas my shortsighted eyes could not see far
                              What  did I see,
                                           my barefooted people with mourning bands
                                                    on their loose and dreary hair
                                                               bursting into tears
                               What did I see,
                                           many newborn children
                                                      refusing to live in this monstrous world
                                 What did I see,
                                             sisters and mothers awaiting their jailed
                                                                                    brothers and sons


                               The sight of schoogirls tearing their coats
                                                             to make banderoles haunted me
                               I shouted to exhort others to rebellion.
                                   []
                               Saigon, Sept., 15, 1963.
                                THEPHONG.
                             
 ( from 'Asian Morning, Western Music, poems by THEPHONG'
    First published by Dai Nam Van Hien Books, Saigon 1974.
   This Edition, Jan., 2012- Ho Chi Minh City , p. 64,65).