Broad-Winged Sarus Crane

Broad-Winged Sarus Crane
© Surazeus
2024 04 14

Too early in the morning of strange light 
for shadows to become new faceless souls 
who seek salvation from the falling bombs 
that blast their paradise to swirling smoke 
still hovering over fields of silver flowers 
decades after wild soldiers all went home. 

Angry helicopter in bloody sky 
rescues fallen angels from streets of fear 
who cling to fragile rope of memories 
while gliding over jungle of orange ghosts 
whose wails still echo on small radios 
in grocery stores on busy avenues. 

In college library in Oregon 
young woman studying history of the war, 
that Americans fought in Vietnam, 
still smells fish and salt of the surging sea 
when she rode with family in small boat 
to seek refuge in land of liberty. 

No dragons writhing in the silver sky 
bring power of lightning and rain to Earth 
except in network of electric lines 
that shimmer over streets streaming with cars, 
so she grins while typing computer keys 
to write her experience after the war. 

Explaining to white kids in the schoolyard 
that her name is pronounced Bik, not Bitch, 
Bich runs away and grips the chain-link fence 
to watch white helicopter in the sky 
that monitors traffic on the highway 
instead of bombing river villages. 

Sitting on stage in the smoky cafe, 
Bich strums guitar and sings enchanting tune, 
we climb the slope together on lush hill 
to lounge beneath the sprawling banyan tree 
and gaze at stars that twinkle in its leaves 
while mourning with the chirp of lonely birds. 

After emailing countless resumes 
to apply for accounting jobs in banks, 
but getting no callbacks for interviews, 
Bich changes her name to Beth Anderson, 
and accepts job offer within two weeks, 
so she sits in the river park and grins. 

Holding up her phone in the school show hall, 
Beth films her granddaughter Brenda on stage, 
dressed in ao dai dress made of yellow silk, 
perform elegant dance with bamboo fans 
as she sings folk song of the banyan tree, 
then turn into a broad-winged Sarus Crane.