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    • Staff 2021 -22
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  • Issues
    • A Fire of Words
    • Editor's Note 2022 >
      • The Floor Wallows Lower
      • Cornflowers
      • Erudite
      • That One Morning
      • mom, im afraid
      • selenophilia
      • Roses and Rainbows
      • If a poisonous snake bites itself, will it die?
      • Rochester
      • Crown of Branches
      • Stairs to the Sea
      • A Poem Written Entirely From Advertisements
      • Pyromania
      • silhouette of a bird against winter stars
      • thunderstorm in the bedroom
      • A Night in Recovery
      • sleeping gypsie
      • paper dolls&goodbyes
      • We Are Women
      • Village Air
      • Sunshine's Laughter
      • the male gaze
      • The Forensic Entomologist
      • Lacking
      • Drowning
      • Adelie
    • Create the Wonders We Dream (2021)
    • Editor's Note >
      • Zove
      • I'm Sorry
      • Fake Smile
      • My Friend the Balloon
      • Eyes Intertwined
      • Perfect
      • Only a Moment
      • A Dangerous Word
      • My Dreams
      • The Last 100 Meters
      • The Green Void (Villanelle)
      • The Whimsical Galaxy (Sestina)
      • The Silent Kindness
      • Pressure
      • Table on the Hill
      • The Yukon
      • The Shore
      • Repentance
      • Her and I
      • Infections of the Soul
      • Threads
      • Dream of a High Schooler
      • Empty
      • little flame
      • scars
      • black and white
      • The Cat
      • Joy
      • Sweet Honey Bee Stings
      • If There Were One Day
      • Delete
      • Our Hearts to Central Vietnam
      • him or Him?
      • Ocean
      • Es Llaner Beach
      • Sewn Together
      • Rain
      • Yes, I Like
      • The Legacy of the Moon
      • The Wind Whimpers
      • From Here I See
      • To Feel Clean
      • Red
      • Survival
      • Substance
      • Golden Lies
      • Midnight Tango
      • Ode to a Spleen
      • Modern Siren
      • The Night's Diamond Tears
      • Beats In Double Time
      • A Day in the Flight
      • Carved By Venus
      • Lifeline
      • Everest
      • Education
      • How Much of Reality Can Be Observed
      • What is a Spork
      • What is the difference between love and in love
      • What would you have wanted? me to say
      • Planet Caravan
      • The Journey of a Minute
      • The Circus of Scars
      • Mosaic
      • Color
      • Love and Acceptance
    • Colors I Never Knew Existed (2020)
    • Her Voice Remains (2017)
    • Watch Every Second (2018)
    • Words Become Reality (2019)
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Our Hearts to Central Vietnam
By: Anh Doan

Picture
The loss that we cannot handle.
Hue--the beautiful citadel
was drowned by the extreme flood.
Molave--the dangerous hurricane
torn homely central Vietnam out.
Looking at the rising water,
their tears don’t stop falling down.
Their houses, schools and family members
have gone by the cruel current.
But, they are still strong,
don’t lose their wills; stand up and fight.
Send tons of wishes to the blue sky.
Hope God could protect central Vietnam.

90 million Vietnamese, in and out the country
give our hearts to the homely region.
We raise funds to call on the national support.
Economic and food aid take place.
Hands in hands, all Vietnamese, we pray,
“God, please protect the homeland.”
After the rains, there are always rainbows.
After the hurricanes, there are always bright futures.
Don’t surrender, don’t lose hope.
We are doing great, and we are great.

But, we have to face the truths.
Mother Nature is laying anger on us.
Before the flood, we were laid back and kept hurting Her.
We chopped down the tress for profits and urbanization,
turned the essential rain forests into bald hills,
We cut our helpful and vital friends--trees
who are able to aid us in lowering the degree of the flood,
We relied on private transport
which exhausted high amounts of CO2,
which raised the greenhouse emissions.
Humans--climate change or hurricanes
the relationship of cause and consequence.

After the flood, we still have time.

Time for change, time for new ideology.
Ecocentrists, anthropocentrists or technocentrists,
No matter who you are,
no matter where you are,
Please contribute yourselves to save our homeland.
Reduce the times using your cars and motorbikes,
lower the use of fossil fuels,
or propose a salt spraying vessel.
Those are honored,
and those contribute to slow down
climate change and global warming.
Governments and large businesses,
Do not be blind by the profits in front of your eyes.
Do not lie to the citizens that we are living in the perfect world,
and natural disasters are not our faults.
Citizenry,
do not sit back and watch,
do take actions and raise awareness.
We are all in this together.
We could protect this, our homeland,
not only central Vietnam, but the whole lovely Earth.
Do not turn any living things we cherish into
     history.
Writer's Statement: The poem, “Our Hearts to Central Vietnam” illustrates the loss in the center of Vietnam caused by the hurricane, Mojave. My homeland was torn by the anger of Mother Nature. The local authorities or government in Vietnamese continuously denied the reasons including climate change and deforestation. But, they were the cause and will forever be the one only if our denial is still there. For a long period of evolution, forest helps avoid the high level of water resulting from flood or hurricane into the delta. Trees are chopped down for the benefits of logging, industrialization, urbanization, or money; then, deforestation happens and is on the upward trend in recent years in Vietnam. Plus, carbon emission from populous cities in Vietnam resulting from the use of too much private transport such as cars or motorbikes causes climate change meaning that the regularity of hurricanes because the temperature is warming gradually leading to the evaporation of water in the ocean and the pouring down of them when it is ready. Therefore, this poem shows the picture of citizens who lost their houses, relatives yet they have been staying strong and making it up with a bold mindset. Moreover, this rings a bell about the destruction resulting from climate change or even human destructive activities towards the environment. At the end of the day, this piece of poems will encourage the reader to realize the cause which is from human activities and encourage them to take actions immediately, whether it is egocentrism or technocentric, to save the earth, and to avoid calling what we have right now, “history”.
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