A Letter for The Dead

Arthur, you have gone again out of my life and this time it is forever

Rainy June in Vietnam

Reading an article of rain, I suddenly recall the rainy seasons on the very old days when I was still living in Vietnam. 

In Vietnam, June was the month of heavy rains.  In Vietnam June, it was making rains, making winds very hard.  Sometimes it was making rains so hard as if all tears of mankind were, at the same time, running down trying to flood this earth, flowing away all mankind's constant predicaments and concerns. Sometimes it was making winds so violently as if all hurricanes over the world were centering here, trying to blow away every remaining existence, making room for a complete rebuilt.

Barnes & Noble

 I put my footsteps onto the threshold of Barns & Noble for the first time after over twelve years living in USA.  It is kind of weird, isn't it?  When it takes that long for a once-bookworm guy like me to do such a simple thing:  entering a best well-known bookstore to buy a novel.  Actually, on-line literature has pretty much invaded traditional one's territory these days to the extent that the latter seems to become extinct on some people's mind, myself included, which is obviously understandable when with just a few clicks away, we can almost find whatever we want online without the trouble of making a trip. 

The Odd Fellows Building

To the professor of Arts, artist: E. Bruce Phillips

I love downtowns of big cities. No matter how many downtowns I have been to (actually they add up to a big number: Greenville, Raleigh, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C, Miami, New York, Paris, Toronto, Orlando, New Orleans, Houston..), the excitement is still there inside me, fresh and vivid, whenever I have a chance to pay them a visit. I still remember when I just came to Atlanta seven years ago, its downtown really enchanted me with its significant beauty and well-designed buildings, its tightly-packed bars, clubs, its flows of people hastily walking back and forth on every street... Although I have been stopping by many times, coming back to Downtown Atlanta the other day, to the Odd Fellows Buildings, still seemed to be a new experience to me. The reason probably was that it was the first time I have ever had a chance to have a close look at an art gallery, the astounding paintings exhibited in the building.

The Memorial Ferry

The last ferry trip.

So I could not come back to be on the last ferry trip over Hau River to say goodbye to the memorial ferry . Over twelve years has passed by and I have never gone back to pay it a visit. Feelings of regret and attachment keep on lingering on my mind. I finally decide to write these lines as a way to show my apology to the memorial ferry, even though it never finds fault with my absence.