september 5, 1999, 4:45 p.m. | le thi diem thuy

Ma says war is a bird with a broken wing flying over the countryside, trailing blood and burying crops in sorrow. If something grows in spite of this, it is both a curse and a miracle. When I was born, she cried when I cried, knowing I had breathed war in and she could never shake it out of me. Ma says war makes it dangerous to breathe, though she knows you die if you don't. She says she could have thrown me against the wall, breaking me until I coughed up this war which is killing us all. She could have stomped on it in the dark and danced on it like a madwoman dancing on gravestones. She could have ground it down to powder and spit on it, but didn't I know? War has no beginning and no end. It crosses oceans like a splintered boat filled with people singing a sad song.

From Le Thi Diem Thuy's short story, "The Gangster We Are All Looking For."

 

 

 

 

 

 

"there seems to be no limits to what american society will accept."

--sarah anderson, co-author of an institute for policy studies report showing that the ratio of top executive to factory worker pay jumped from 42 to 1 in 1980 to 419 to 1 last year

************************

across the hall, my neighbor has a red plastic cup filled with water sitting outside her door. someone has taped a hand-written sign above it on the doorframe. the note reads, "passive aggressive response" with an arrow pointing down at the cup.

it's been there for several days now. mark and i have no idea what it means.