DAVID LAN PHAM, F.A.B.I.

The lonely traveller

The traveller walks heavily
On the deserted old path.
The flaming sunlight fades;
Light seems to pass fast.
*
The path appears to be asleep,
The branch of the flame tree (1) dead.
The old friends are no longer seen.
Neither are the old sites and wandering people.
*
The graves are covered with withered grass.
The dead rest in peace.
People struggle for life
In sowing carnage and hatred.
*
The church is fallen.
Human virtues decline.
The evening bell of repentance
Dissipates in faded sunlight.
*
The awry door of the school
Closes all the streams of thoughts
In offering wide overture
To wilderness, darkness, and fatal destiny.
*
The trellis of honeysucker falls down,
Its white blossoms are not yet withered.
They try to survive
To exhale their fragrance in the moonlight.
*
The rhymes of the old poems
Disappeared many years ago.
In their place are the songs
Calling for bloodshed and separation.
*
The lonely traveller
Is leaving at sunset
On the endless path,
Trying to find the first hope light.

Phạm Đình Lân, F.A.B.I.

_____

(1) Flame tree: royal poinciana (E), flamboyant (Fr.) Scientific name: Delonix regia, Family: Caesalpinaceae.

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