Uncle Ho’s Poetry

it is well when
your life becomes
your destiny as
happens with our
great political
figures Uncle Ho
the wanderer
the chimera
creator or re-
ceiver of lost
mythologies
the poet who
spoke like a
dark sharp peak
emerging from
clouds before
disappearing
called leadership
to himself you
felt important for
his was the blend
of violent and non
cosmopolitan
consu-mane...

man of the people
rice paddy to
world stage
possible in
poetry and spirit-
ual evanescence
he is lost be-
hind for me
a destiny not
completed in
life or death
for Americans
to die in his
name to call
it a reason
when he had
no name...

I’d rather have
the man behind
the name than
the name be-
come cause
a slippage and
cause making
death meaning-
less a strategy
old as war itself
the non-deduc-
tive East a last
blow, corollary...