Richard Milazzo
Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 120 in October, 2009.
From the hotel balcony we could see
The ferries crossing Saigon River,
And the flat boats with sand and the sampans
With their gold fans catching the wind and floating by,
And the harbor in the distance,
Losing itself in the blue haze,
And the cyclos racing up and down
Dong Khoi Street.
And from the terraces of the Rex,
The Caravelle and the Continental,
We reported the ghosts of Somerset Maugham,
André Malraux and Graham Greene.
