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loose strife (Afterward one woman says the killing fields)

Quan Barry

Afterward one woman says the killing fields

are only three kilometers away

and that you can walk there.

The other woman says it’s more than fifty

and simply points to the darkening sky.

“loose strife” (Afterward one woman says the killing fields) from Loose Strife by Amy Quan Barry, © 2015. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Amy Quan Barry was born in Saigon and grew up in Boston. A poet and novelist, she holds an MFA from the University of Michigan.

Barry is the author of four books of poetry, including Loose Strife (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015); Water Puppets (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and a PEN/Open Book Award Finalist; and Asylum (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001), winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.

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child of the enemy

I’ve seen thousands of Amerasians, and I have two Amerasian [children] of my own. Amerasians are willful and stubborn. They have serious identity problems. They have no discipline. Down the street at the Floating Hotel you’ll find Amerasian prostitutes plying their mothers’ trade. I think there’s a racial thing here, something genetic.

—an American ex-soldier as quoted in Vietamerica

III. Child of the Enemy

Quan Barry

2001

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loose strife (Afterward one woman says the killing fields)

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child of the enemy

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