Sliding Vision II

Vietnam drifts and rolls

Tall buildings, long and thin

French shutters, a slender curved balcony

Banana plants and duck farms,

Water lashes at the glass

White skies, thickening cloud.

Road work signs and rice paddies.

Banzai trees for sale.

Hats, round and pointed like bamboo witch hats

Worn by people in the fields that kneed the Earth

A white heron in the vast green and brown fishes the saturated ground.

The old man next to me shares his tea from a silver pot. Jasmine I think.

We mime to each other.

This paper is too white for my eyes,

As white as the white heron outside.

A water buffalo keeps warm in the mud,

Surrounded by a family of small white ducks

The little ones drop into the brown water,

Splashing like clear raindrops

I looks like winter, but feels like an English Summer.

Vietnam monsoon, waiting for typhoon Haiyan.