A HUMBLE DREAM

When peace comes,
when police no longer check me for Eligibility for Draft Deferral on the street*,
when police no longer knock my door at midnight for identity verification,
I will stop going to school.
Because, my darling, it's so happy not to have to go to school.
I can go see a movie with you anyday, anytime.
Not just Sunday
and watch the movie but still think of the textbooks.
Every afternoon I can
take a bath and read a novel in the balcony,
a novel that I like very much.
Not at midnight, lonely by the light,
crunching the numbers that I hate so much like now.
I also don't have to
look for a parttime tutor job
and worry about my future:
how to avoid the military draft, how to raise a family.
(Because the cost of living will drop,
our country will export a lot of rice.
Every family will be able to afford a chicken every week,
then sure I can make a living easily.)
I also don't have to go to a military camp every summer
to play the stupid game of the human race.**
I just relax all day, all month, all year.
Make poems, write stories
and love you.

Hoang Hai Ho

* During wartime, South Vietnamese university students were given a deferral from draft until they graduated. Those who did not have the deferral card were considered draft dodgers.
** They had to take military training every summer.