The stories my dad told me
When I was just a boy:
In Vietnam they ate ants with rice
And they mixed it with Bok Choy
He was afraid of ghosts at night
And of the spirits in the trees
And foreigners invaded their land
No respect from the Vietnamese
Heavily held by animism
They sacrificed to appease the spirits
And when he left for boarding school
He led a revolution of the students
He wanted to be a famous singer
But his parents wanted him to be doctor
So they made him pass
That opportunity when he got an offer
They would collect animal poop on the land
And take it to market to sell
Working hard out in the fields
With so many stories to tell
Living in the village he often got infected with lice
Lift up the plates at the mistakes
His mom got so mad at his dad
When he got drunk at night
Drinking too much wine
And getting into fights
Beating his children and calling them pigs
Helell at birth lost life’s worth
When she was struck with her mental disability
They always worked out in the farm
Uprooting the weeds
And he loved to play outside in the day
In the lake and climbing in the trees