In The Forest of Flags

Three red stripes on yellow field

Several tens of thousand

Raised hands with the same heart

Democracy and Freedom

For Vietnam

Twenty four years went by

The first time I burst into cry

In face of yellow flags

Oh, there ! Fatherland revives

At faces of time-worn refugees

Teardrops happily roll by

Bitter tear drops

For the unknowns lying down,

At the be-forgotten outposts

For the fate of exiles

Dying away in deep jungle encampment

For the misfortunate

Down deep in the sea bottom

Wild storm and heartless pirates

Not barricades on the journey ahead

A future unknown but a word of freedom

For the escapees.

Died rotten on the bushy trails through the border

For the detainees,

In refugee-camp around countries

Within worn-out years of hope

How can I forget ?

The Souls were once abandoned

The country were one "the last stand of the free world"

Then become the ignored miserable

In a mass Exodus.

Indianapolis, March 15, 1999

Hoan Van Ngo