the deer did not
stop running
leopards
climbed into trees
that could not
hide them
the douc langur
and the white
cheeked gibbon
cursed at the
metal gods
we flew
raining
on them
as they burned
from napalm
elephants
choked on the
smoke of gunpowder
and poison
their steps
a strange
rhythm
as they tried
to fly
the thunder
of bombs echoed the steps
of elephants
tigers exploded
as they stepped
onto landmines
in a forest covered
with leaves
dead from
Agent Orange,
fallen trees and
decomposing
bodies of animals
and people
the earthworms
were washed away
in monsoons
with soil that could
no longer grab onto
roots
the Javan
rhinoceros
and the wild
water buffalos
that were still
alive
wandered
aimlessly
weary
with M16s
and AK-47s, we
marched quietly
and steadily
not knowing
why we were
killing each other
*For ten years, the U.S. Air Force flew nearly 20,000 herbicide spray missions in order to destroy the forest cover as well as agriculture lands in key areas of southern Việt Nam.
First published in Kyoto Journal, Issue #79, 2014.
Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam and fled her Vietnamese homeland with her mother and brother shortly after the American war, spending three and a half months in a freight boat stranded in the East Sea before being rescued. Her father, who had served in the Army of the Republic of Việt Nam, was imprisoned in a Việt Cộng “re-education” camp for nine years. From 1993 to 1994 and from 1996 to 1997, Teresa traveled to and lived in Palestine to gain more understanding after seeing the horror in Gaza on the news. Her poems, “Playground” and “Eternity in Gaza” are based on scenes from the 2002 documentary Gaza Strip filmed by James Longley. She is the Altadena Poet Laureate, Editor-in-Chief (2018-2020) and English Teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District for nineteen years, Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012). She is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2025), and her poetry was recently published in Here Was Once the Sea: An Anthology of Southeast Asian Ecowriting (University of Hawaii Press, 2023).
