{"id":413,"date":"2023-03-17T16:29:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T16:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=413"},"modified":"2023-03-17T16:29:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T16:29:55","slug":"new-city-park-vietnam-rhymed-quatrains-in-trimeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"New City Park, Vietnam – Rhymed Quatrains in Trimeter\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smoke fills the early evening.<\/span>
\nA field ripples with flames.<\/span>
\nThe sun sinks over the treeline<\/span>
\nwhile children shriek and play games.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fires consume the field<\/span>
\nwhile I\u2019m consumed with worries<\/span>
\nfor my wife and, of course,<\/span>
\nthe beansprout that she carries.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Viets have many talents,<\/span>
\nbut singing\u2019s not one of their gifts,<\/span>
\nas they mutilate the tune<\/span>
\nyet warble heartfelt riffs<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

into mics and amplifiers.<\/span>
\nIgnoring the world\u2019s faults,<\/span>
\njust out of fire\u2019s reach,<\/span>
\nan old couple dances a waltz<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

beneath new-planted trees<\/span>
\nwhose leaf tips char and singe.<\/span>
\nThis field was once a jungle<\/span>
\nYanks sprayed with Agent Orange.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now smoke from its brown grasses<\/span>
\nmerges with Saigon smog,<\/span>
\nthe shoe factory fumes,<\/span>
\ngrilled okra, fish, and dog.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We park our bikes in the sand,<\/span>
\nwhere the fire\u2019s less smoky and smelly.<\/span>
\nI take my wife by the hand,<\/span>
\nkiss it and her pregnant belly<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

as we scrunch at a tiny table.<\/span>
\nWe sip hand-pressed cane juice<\/span>
\npoured over chunks of ice<\/span>
\nand watch the smoldering hues.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The western clouds are tinder<\/span>
\nthe field and sunset ignite.<\/span>
\nThe old pair has danced and gone<\/span>
\ninto their own good night.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoke fills the early evening. A field ripples with flames. The sun sinks over the treeline while children shriek and play games.\u00a0 Fires consume the field while I\u2019m consumed with worries for my wife and, of course, the beansprout that she carries.\u00a0 Viets have many talents, but singing\u2019s not one of their gifts, as they … Continue reading “New City Park, Vietnam – Rhymed Quatrains in Trimeter\u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[38],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-verse","category-poetry"],"authors":[{"term_id":38,"user_id":14,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rim-ziani","display_name":"Rim Ziani","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e98b36a92db4c26f25d61781429f44b346d9cc1d983500231ba6078436a8fa4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"http:\/\/trove.aui.ma","last_name":"Ziani","first_name":"Rim","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}