Illegal Fireworks Destroy Oakland Home In Fire by Ha Kiet Chau

East Bay Times—July 5, 2021

Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash

Hot flashes of hell. Orange, bloodred flickers. Ba on a stretcher, ruminating, how this could have happened, his splendid nhà, his American dream, lit, poof, gone. Ma on the curb, in silent retreat, reliving old traumas, fears. The three of us on the sidewalk, homeless, shoeless as flames swell through the stairs, the rooms, the roof, torching the ceiling of the sky.
 
The firemen and police, the neighbors and culprits, the sirens and wailing. Horror burns like incense, hurts skin, flesh, bone. I pray for water, rain, relief. In times of crisis, shadows and figures appear, halos and orbs gliding towards us, calming chaos. Among the dozen faces and bodies, I recognize my grandfather kneeling in front of Ba, healing him from anguish, soul shock.

At dawn, the sun is confirmed dead. Loss is heavy, eerie, foreign. Shoveling mounds of debris, oak, and rubble, I locate pieces of ruined porcelain—the head of Buddha, decapitated. I am learning how to mourn without tears the way my parents did after losing their home, their belongings in the Vietnam War, escaping by boat on hazardous seas, displaced and separated in refugee camps, immigrating to America with nothing but hope.

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Ha Kiet Chau is the author of two poetry collections Eleven Miles to June (Green Writers Press 2021) and Woman Come Undone (Mouthfeel Press 2014). Her writings have appeared in Ploughshares, Asia Literary Review, Empty House Press, New Madrid, and Columbia College Literary Review. Her YA novel in verse, Darling Winter, is forthcoming in 2024. Find Ha on Instagram @sweetpoeticsoo