Montagnard Shadows

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