Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 1. VIETNAM by KAREN SWENSON

First Line: SHADOW CLEAVES
Last Line: BOWL BROKEN BY HIS BIRTH.
Subject(s): CHILDREN; VIETNAM; CHILDHOOD;
Shadow cleaves
the cool arcade of tourist
shops from sunlight
as he's severed from the language

of the skin
he shares with buyers
of his ballpoint pens.
A ten-year-old genuine

Norman Rockwell
freckle-faced kid, his mouth
only knows his mother's tongue.
He's a lagniappe from her clientele,

a providence
she sends begging to
fill the rice
bowl broken by his birth.



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