INTERVIEW

By: Y-YEN

What’s your name?

I am River-and-Mountain,

The Pride, the Shame.

How old are you?

I am as old as war

Old as the bamboo afar.

You look very thin,

Dryness furrowing your skin,

What does it mean?

I worked to the max,

I ate to the min.

Why do you want to leave Viet Nam

As pretty as dream?

I never want to quit Viet Nam,

But to flee the red regime.

What’s the trouble with the regime?

I don’t fear lack of food,

But I dislike synonyms:

Aggression, Liberation;

Slavery, Liberty;

Dark meaning,

Naked truth,

Where peace is dim.

How do you think of the United States?

Oh, you are very fortunate

In the promising America.

No one can hurt your Honor so far;

You are rich in dollars!

Aaaah! And for all these,

You go there to live?

Not quite as such,

I like the United States so much

For She has given to mankind

Brave pioneers and science.

But

What I really want

Is to back to Viet Nam

After the Red Tide,

To the Land where the brave GIs

had come on behalf of the dear names: Allies.

Y-YEN, penname of Phan Tan My,

Wrote before 1975 to some VN magazines

Twice attended training at Fort Benning, Ga 31905.

Former Major, Battalion Commander/18^th Infantry Division;

Fought the victorious Xuan Loc battle, April 1975.

Ten years in the Communist prisons, North Viet Nam.