Hue: Four Glimpses of the Inner City

........................................ 1

Waved through the gate,
our truck shudders courier into the Citadel.
A temple beneath a ministry of trees
meditates stone demons versus dragons
into lichen.

...................................... 2

Lakeside, a fisher-child raises his dipnet,
sieving shadows from sunlight,
and roves on.
The shrine behind him
contemplates dragon battle --
sliced by a passing pole boat --
writhing back into mirrored stone.

.................................... 3

Straw hats press toward the sidewalk,
children push to peer between stubborn legs,
and a boy, crowdside, yells to a friend at lakeshore.

The crowd wedges open at the stone eye
of a mother bearing in thin arms
her heaviest burden,
its black hair hanging
long as sorrow.

................................... 4

Wheeling back past the scattering hats,
past the boy netting reflected dragons,
past the cloistering trees to the maroon wall
pitted light ochre in Tet '68,
we clear the gate tower inscribed
"Ghi On Chien Si,"
whip around the concertina wire,
and merge with the honk and fumes of city traffic
before the meaning strikes:
"Remember the Warrior."

(c) Copyright R. S. Carlson 1984

First published in DEROS 3.2 (March 1984).

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