I Married Poetry

As a student I married Poetry,
as soon as we met, she knew I was gone;

All the other girls fell out of my mind.

She only agreed to marry me
because I'd die without her near.
And we really were a match made in heaven

our best man and bridesmaid were Dream and Vision.

Poetry's busy with all of our kids,
she's pasty with years of being shut in.
Having left her palace in the clouds
the bride now wanders in a kind of daze…

They blame her for being too angry and sad
refusing to wear a pretty face

or to sell herself for the Party cause…

Her faith has only brought her pain,
we've shared unspeakable tales.

- Darling, will your loyalty ever end?
- Yes, the first day you tell me a lie!


Nguyen Chi Thien spent 27 years between 1961 and 1991 in Vietnamese prisons for anti-propaganda (initially for correcting a textbook's claim that the Japanese surrendered to the Russians).

"Those who live in a free world," he says, "can hardly imagine the living conditions of prisoners. Being always very hungry, they ate everything they could catch: mice, rats, spiders, snakes, lizards, etc. In a short time, all insects around the camp were exterminated. Prisoners had to do it secretly, if the guards noticed them swallowing, prisoners would immediately get shackled. People were dying one after another. As far as an eye could see, there were graves around the labor camp everywhere."

Read more about Mr Nguyen at:

• http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-5-2/41077.html -- by Natalie Teplitsky
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Chi_Thien

Poem translation by KD; Quote taken from The Epoch Times, http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-5-2/41077.html -- by Natalie Teplitsky; Read more about Mr Nguyen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyen_Chi_Thien (photograph of the 'Hanoi Hilton' in 1970 also taken from the Wikipedia page)