This is a real world poem. There are enough stories. There were many people who got caught up in all the different attempts to humanize inhumane situations. This is what we do. This is of course my generation’s war in Vietnam. I have no real clue if things like this are happening in Iraq but somehow I doubt Islam makes good street women. This poem came about in sympathy with something Cat shared about a Thai girl last year if I remember right. There were many street women in Thailand too. Are? Probably. I wonder and don’t know much about what is happening in Vietnam these days.
They Went Back To The World
There were men intent
on saving the young street girls,
saving the beauty.
They would begin like
all the other customers
but then pay the rent,
play with the children,
figure ways to get them out,
usually fail.
I wonder too what
happened to those men when they
went back to the world.
April 19, 2009 11:26 AM
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There is a poignant story here in your portrayal of the street girls, saved through guilt and then abandoned when those men
ReplyDeletewent back to the world.
Yes...the structure was against saving the girls. The guys typically would be unable to find ways to get the girls out. Most often the guys would not understand their situations, how difficult getting the girls out would be. At least they wouldn't have understood how little power they had at the point when they tumbled into their feelings for the girls.
ReplyDeleteThe girls too would fall victim to the false hope because it was such a high hope. It was hard for the girls to understand that the guys didn't have much power, so different the baseline between them and the guys. All Americans seemed affluent and powerful in comparison.
Both were victims, since the access to the local girls was easy if not exactly encouraged for morale reasons. The Vietnamese are a lovely and lovable people in general and the girls (and even their children) in particular for American GIs. It was really easy for sex to become love.
I can see both sides of abandonment here. Harsh realities on both sides of the landscape.
ReplyDeleteThis is exceptional... there's not much said about it either. All the ways the situation can take shape, you've encapsulated nicely.
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