From America with Love

(Written for my Papa San on The Wall)

 

There are many sleepless nights

Not because of routine life struggles,

But because the poet inside me is stuck:

The horrible image of a very young girl in burka

She sacrifices her precious body and soul

Oh sweet heart, you are a daughter or a niece I never had

I may not speak Arabic,

But I can express myself in the language of love.

We, in the end, are one race of humanity

Who in his right mind would have poisoned your spirit?

You are too little to be a warrior,

You are too precious a flower to be trashed

Your soul is too pure to be soiled

My dear beautiful fellow citizen of the world:

If you were brainwashed with a religious reward,

Hoping to go to a heaven to which you are promised

My dear, pretend that I myself have a spot up there

I wholeheartedly want you to have it as any parent would.

I offer you my soul, please take it,

Within it is a realm of love and gratitude

For the country, that is second to none,

In the spirit of charity and generosity.

It’s a melting pot -- E Pluribus Unum --

‘Cause America is made of immigrants

From every corner on the planet Earth

Your fellow nationals are Americans

Who work hard to send your homeland their support

They go to mosques, praying just like you.

I shed tears of sorrow for your being taught to hate your own race,

Killing Americans means killing your own people

How could it be that you are rewarded a place in heaven?

Oh, our man-made religions, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists!

We wouldn’t use God for our mundane interests;

Even a lion would die for his cub,

Our heavenly Father/Allah wouldn’t be pleased 

By letting you commit suicide-bombing

Just consider me as a father you never had

Consider that I yield my spot in heaven for you,

There, the sweet notes of Chopin's "Fantasies impromptu..."

 

Linh Duy Vo (a blessed  Stanford Dad)

Veterans Day, 11.11.2009©

 

 

 

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