All posts tagged: poem

“For Mae Tow” by Soudary Kittivong-Greenbaum

Published by littlelaosontheprairie

when i picture you, you are 52. lips deep, bright plum skin patted smooth by powder jet black hair shaped by pink cushion curlers the night before. you are decorated in your finest gold. necklace. rings. earrings. sinh,  matching hand sewn top, after your shifts at the dealership the cleaning lady, now, ready for the party. you dress me, cure a high bun on my head, the same that you lift once set, and exclaim with joy: “good ga-lirl” i wonder if you’d still consider me good? i’m not always polite don’t bow as you did to others. service, that’s what they call it. i don’t go to temple. don’t offer alms, or truck kow to the sick, or for boun at Wat Lao, Wat Thai, Wat Khmer. you used to visit them all, every week. only you. everyone loved your smile. a diplomat’s for sure. laughing from the gut. you were a saint. didn’t discriminate for souls, only for those that took, and even then, you might have bent. — i wonder how would you like hearing your …

Missoula, 1976

Published by Bryan Thao Worra

By: Bryan Thao Worra At 3 years old in Montana, I became a citizen on Flag Day During the American bicentennial. That and a cup of coffee gets you A cup of coffee even if you write A thousand poems for a million elephants. I didn’t stay there, of course, But in that city I met my first ghosts And dinosaurs, gorgons and ancient gods. I played with a young girl named Dulcinea, Discovered the family pigs eaten by a bear, And saw my first neighbor die, Crushed beneath a fallen telephone pole. I wish I remembered his name. Our family dog Dutch, in his tragic jealousy, Tried to kill me a few times. I still have one scar from it after 40 years. But I miss him anyway, Because that’s the way refugee memory works. Author’s Note: Based on a true story. This week, June 14th is Flag Day, which celebrates the adoption of the US flag in 1777 by the resolution of the Second Continental Congress. Congress first established it in August, 1946, …