the decade the rainforest died*

by Teresa Mei Chuc

First published in Kyoto Journal (Issue 79) in 2014. Click the arrow (>) to learn more about this piece

From the author:

I wrote the poem, “the decade the rainforest died,” because I wanted to show the impact of war on not just humans, but also the natural environment, the land, the plants, the animals, the water. During the American war in Việt Nam, chemicals, including Agent Orange, were sprayed over our ancient rainforests in order to eliminate the forest cover and crops. Some of these rainforests are millions of years old. A rainforest ecosystem could take thousands of years to regenerate. Old growth trees take hundreds of years to mature and so many animals and people depend on them. There is a delicate balance in these rainforests that gets disrupted when herbicides are sprayed, landmines explode, and bombs are dropped. Though the American war happened about half a century ago, the effects on our rainforests can still be felt to this day.

From poet Rick Kearns:

“Chuc’s clear voice explains the horrendous effects of depleted uranium, napalm and Agent Orange on the entire living world, the world of water, plants and people. Other writers have approached these themes of course but part of what sets Chuc’s poetry apart is that precise, poetic vision that while it helps us comprehend the full effects of the devastation through the details of a child’s funeral, it is still infused with grace.”

the deer did not stop running

leopards

climbed into trees

that could not

hide them

the douc langur

and the white

cheeked gibbon

cursed at the

metal gods

we flew

raining

on them

as they burned

from napalm

elephants

choked on the

smoke of gunpowder

and poison

their steps

a strange

rhythm

as they tried

to fly

the thunder

of bombs echoed the steps

of elephants

tigers exploded

as they stepped

onto landmines

in a forest covered

with leaves

dead from

Agent Orange,

fallen trees and

decomposing

bodies of animals

and people

the earthworms

were washed away

in monsoons

with soil that could

no longer grab onto

roots

the Javan

rhinoceros

and the wild

water buffalos

that were still

alive

wandered

aimlessly

weary

with M16s

and AK-47s, we

marched quietly

and steadily

not knowing

why we were

killing each other

* For ten years, the U.S. Air Force flew nearly 20,000 herbicide spray missions in order to destroy the forest cover as well as agricultural lands in key areas of southern Việt Nam.

---

Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam and immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee with her mother and brother shortly after the Việt Nam War while her father was imprisoned in a Viet Cong “reeducation” camp for nine years. Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three collections of poetry, Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012). She teaches literature and writing at a public high school in Los Angeles, California. Teresa’s poetry chapbook, Incidental Takes, is forthcoming from Hummingbird Press.

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