What Binds Us
I spent twenty-six years
in the jungle;
I was thirty years old
before I kissed a woman,
the Vietnamese poet said
and stared at
the American veterans
as if amazed at
what he had kissed instead.
In the war, he said,
his comrades had covered
his body with their own
to protect him
from the bombs
so he could finish
writing his poem,
although now
in his country
he fears there’s no one
who will understand
the language
in which it was written
…
This poem is from the chapbook Drinking with the Enemy by Wayne Karlin (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/drinking-with-the-enemy-by-wayne-karlin/
Wayne Karlin has published nine novels, a collection of short stories and three works of non-fiction. His poetry has been published in many print and on-line journals. He has received two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Paterson Prize in Fiction, the Juniper Prize for Fiction, and the Vietnam Veterans of American Excellence in the Arts Award.
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