Family Reunion

Mark Osaki

It was always worst
just before we disembarked
while the Hueys hovered,
hurling grass sideways like sleet.

Pointing to me, someone shouted
Throw him out first,
one look and the gooks
will think we’re friendly.

That’s right fellas,
the CO laughed,
this boy has kin
out there.

It amused me too
to imagine someone hiding
below us in the grass
with my photo in his wallet.

It was a joke to be shared
with everyone
we killed.

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Mark S. Osaki was born in Sacramento, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley as an Alumni Scholar and went on to do graduate work in International Relations and Security Studies. His work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Georgia Review, Carrying the Darkness—The Poetry of the Vietnam War (Avon, Texas Tech University Press), South Carolina Review, Men of Our Time—An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America (University of Georgia Press), Breaking Silence—An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Poets (Greenfield Review Press), Onset Review, and Báo Giấy—Vietnamese Poetry.

He has received awards for his poetry from the Academy of American Poets, University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco Arts Commission, Seattle Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Of his writing, Osaki writes, “Moral ambiguity is the main theme of my poetry; the realization that ethical considerations compel us towards a confrontation. That even good intentions often lead to corruption.”