Bouncing Betty

 
It’s been forty-years  
plus twenty  
that Bouncing Betty  
kicked her shoes off  
walked barefoot;  
her jungle-rotted toes  
buried in the hot soil  
of Vietnam and Cambodia.  
 
The landscape  
of her awakening  
escorted many  
into the afterlife.  
 
Even now  
her explosive temper  
splits survival's aftermath  
when her hibernation  
is innocently disrupted;  
demanding sacrificial blood  
as restitution;  
or at least a limb.  
 
Most days lack dire circumstance  
for the Vietnamese,  
who go about daily tasks  
set forth by ancestors;  
they follow a narrowly lit road  
between present shadows  
and memory,  
shouldering offerings  
of vegetables and fruit  
upward into the bright  
future of tomorrow:  
 
Refugees emerging  
from an earthen tunnel;  
the carved catacombs  
of bloody history  
still camped out  
in their jungle reality.  
~  
 
 
Photo Credit Man-Kui Wisely