Jan Barry

Memorial For Man In Black Pajamas

Trinh Vo Man was a poet
in his own land a scholar
to his own people a venerable
and wise old man
in his village
throughout his native land
a warm and kind man
to his wife and children
and grandchildren
a humorous and tolerant man
to his neighbors
an hospitable man to all
til the blue-eyed visitors
came uninvited
and shot him
because a Man wearing
black pajamas
to them
was just a slope, a dink, a gook
was 'Vietcong'