Our touring barge plows south
through Mekong waters
soon to arrive in the Delta.

It’s been years, yet the names of these places
are still familiar. Glossary of napalm and
agent orange, of families fleeing, of death.

I stand on deck and see a peaceful land,
little battered boats, hut homes, rice-carrying
hoys, their painted eyes alert for evil spirits.

Everywhere in the brown current, islands of
hyacinths float — invasive spread of jade leaves,
plum blooms and unseen roots that hang

in the water and thrive. Close by a flat boat drifts,
nets piled inside, humble in this mighty river.
The man at stern steers, the other on the bow

sits cross-legged and looks up into my eyes. Both
of us smile, then we wave at the same moment.
Our connection so slight, but still just that.

Martha (Marti) E. Snell’s poetry appears in Ninth Letter, Moon City Review, Cutthroat, The Poet’s Billow, and Streetlight Magazine. She received the Mary Jean Irion Prize from Chautauqua Literary Arts Friends in 2015. She completed an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2015. She lives in the East Bay, California.