Cafe Cafe and I took first at IBPC!

My poem took first! It was first published in Best of Best Mipo-Cafe Summer 2007. The one on the site is an earlier version with an earlier title.

http://www.webdelsol.com/IBPC/winningpoems.html

http://www.webdelsol.com/IBPC/comentary.html

The Journal has many good poems and poets:

http://www.lulu.com/content/873827

Thanks to all who read it and gave me advice on how to improve it.

East Coast Mekong Vernacular

Brother,

Let us find refuge in
Unabashed love;

The crescent blade
Tucked against your waist
Held like an organ for self flight;

My sac of collected mango pits
I plant for redemption but never sprout
Fruit in this land of many winters;

Let us pawn them all in for;

Tears and honey,
Hummingbirds and misfortune,
Naga and lock gates,

So we may one day burrow our hands so
Deep into a furious hive of dashes and discomfort

That we are fortunate enough
To understand what hold

The spirit is not war and calls to home,

But a monsoon of poetry & weeps
That fastens the mouth

Sweet like Mekong vernacular
Sticky with the weight of America's

Orange blossom.