Vietnam
Ruminations: Part 6
Robert Wilson
California, USA/ PH
floating
cones --
villagers walking in
the moonless night
Most villagers in the Republic of South Vietnam wore black silk pajama-like
clothing and cone shaped straw hats. They still do. The clothing is light,
inexpensive, easy to care for, and ideally suited for those living in a
tropical, humid climate. The straw hats shield villagers from the affects of the
hot sun, especially those who labor in the rice fields.
Due to the war, nightfall was a lightless affair. Lights gave away positions;
made people targets. During the monsoon season, darkness in the villages was
especially thick, the moon often hiding behind clouds. Walking through a village
was a challenge for American servicemen. Doing it quietly, even more of a
challenge. Villagers, on the other hand, navigated the tiny paths between
buildings and straw thatched roof homes with ease.
Dressed in black and dark skinned, the villagers were invisible at night
with the exception of those wearing straw hats.
butterfly
---
there are no leaves to land on
this year
Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide/defoliant, was regularly sprayed by American
aircraft on selected jungles and rice fields in South Vietnam between 1962 and
1971. It was used to defoliate areas where the enemy was known to inhabit; and
the crops serving as their food supply. Agent Orange transformed sprayed areas
into grotesque wastelands. All in all, eleven million gallons were sprayed. It
is a highly toxic chemical compound that can cause severe health problems such
as spinal bifidia, diabetes and cancer.
I was stationed in an area that was heavily sprayed. I have not been affected so
far by any of the after effects. I know of veterans who haven’t been as lucky.
Their health has suffered. So has the health of some of their children. Veterans
hospitals in the U.S. offer testing for symptoms related to Agent Orange
exposure and pay those affected a monthly settlement. They also cover medical
expenses.
I wonder how many thousands of civilians living in the sprayed regions were
affected? Do they have any medical recourse?
summer rain...
in his hands,
the entrails of a friend
Soldiers grow close to those they fight alongside with. They do everything
together. A bond is formed only another soldier who's been in battle can
understand. Pretences are jettisoned. A person's fears and eccentricities
exposed.
I will never forget those I served with during the Vietnam War. They were my
friends. People I entrusted my life with. Many soldiers died horrific deaths.
Sights surpassing anything seen in a horror movie.
Many of those who fought in the Vietnam War are haunted today by what they saw
and experienced. Writing this series helps me to exorcise these ghosts.
stretching
after a thousand years,
the dragon wakes up
Vietnam is a sleeping dragon. She was colonized for over a thousand years by
China, Japan, France, and the U.S. (economically); every country wanting a piece
of the pie. South Vietnam is rich in oil, rubber, and mineral resources. Vietnam
today is struggling to chart its own course, the dragon rising from its nest,
adjusting to the world around it.
ripe fruit --
a soldier's arm
dangling from a tree
The former Republic of South Vietnam is a tropical paradise; very different from
what I am used to in the United States where there are four distinct seasons. In
Vietnam, there are variations of one season: summer. It is almost always hot,
humid, the ever green countryside and jungles teeming with exotic plants and
trees.
On some days, the temperature got as high as 127 degrees Fahrenheit with 100%
humidity. After an hour in the hot sun, our uniforms were soaked, our bodies
dripping with sweat.
During a fire fight, soldiers couldn't always retrieve those who died. Bullets
and mortars were flying in all directions. Bodies were left behind. Or what
remained of them.
browner than
the earth he tills.
the rice farmer
Workers in the rice fields of Southeast Asia spend long hours toiling in the
hot, humid sun. From sun up to sun down, they labor, often without the help of a
water buffalo. Those who have done this all of their lives have skin that looks
and feels
like leather.
Stationed in South Vietnam, I noticed two things about the people living in the
villages. They looked younger than their counterparts in the United States until
they reached their thirties, when working in the sun took its toll. They
now looked older.
war hero,
asleep beneath a rice field
ripe with land mines
The Vietnam War ended when the U.S. Military left the former Republic of South
Vietnam in 1975. North Vietnam annexed the country, creating a united Vietnam.
We in America commemorate the sacrifice of 50,000 plus. U.S. military personnel
who died during the war. It is important for people to remember that over one
million human beings lost their lives. Many more were maimed, raped, and
mentally savaged.
Today,
buried beneath the fertile soil of this country, are thousands of live land
mines, bombs, and booby traps that still threaten lives some 27 years after the
war ended. During the war, the amount of ordinances dropped into the province of
Quang Tri alone was larger than that dropped in all of Europe during World War
II.
near
the ground that will
claim her, the old woman
hawking rice
Retirement is something most of us living in the United States look forward to.
It is a time to rest, to do the things we always wanted to do but couldn't,
thanks to Social Security and pensions.
This is a foreign concept to the people living in the Mekong Delta region of
southern Vietnam. There are no pensions or social security checks for the
laborers in the rice fields and the vendors in the marketplace. Life is hard.
People work until they can no longer work. They go to work before dawn and work
long hours. The only rest they
get is the rest they get at night. There are no bowling alleys, movie theaters,
and shopping centers to visit when the work day has ended. The villagers do what
people do in homes lacking the modern conveniences we take for granted:
cook, sew, mend, repair, build, wash clothes by hand and prepare for the next
day.
In Mytho City, it was commonplace to see old women stooping next to the baskets
of rice, fruit, or vegetables they were hawking in the marketplace. Their skin,
leathery from exposure to the sun. Their backs, bowed from years of hard labor.
Survival, their motivation.
Excerpted from the e-book, Vietnam Ruminations,
available at vietnamruminations.com
