Hoa Lo

The cattle, he said,

kept me sane. The chewing,

he said, my God!

The chewing, you just wouldn't,

well you wouldn't!

Who could?

Nobody could,

but understand,

just merge your mind and

understand, he said,

the chewing was just so perfect!

So relaxed, it reduced the world

from an endless autobiography

of insanity

to a neat and clean

piece of paper

and, he said,

I tried to fold along the crisp lines

just like the guards taught me

in Hoa Lo

between beatings.

Did you manage to birth

an animal from the world

I asked? He said, no,

I tried to make a cow

but he had such sad eyes

and I could never get the mouth

quite right.

© Joshua Potter 2010