Vietnamese Buddha
By Gary Every
I rescued him from a hobby store
a miniature 1/15 scale reproduction
of a Vietnamese Buddha.
He was meant to be displayed
on the mapped board of a war game
but I placed the curly haired siddhartha
on my bookshelves
next to my rocks, coin collection, and sea shells.
I had an uncle who was thrust
into the middle of the Viet Nam War
interrupting a minor league baseball career
as a third baseman,
a career that a mortar fragment
in his shoulder ended forever.
His job was to destroy Viet Cong bases
and frequently that meant
ancient Buddhist temples
because they were loaded
with guns, ammo, and radios;
sometimes stashed directly beneath the altar.
He would lace these ancient temples
with T.N.T.
and blow them up
from heaven high to kingdom come.
It was the only thing he ever regretted, he said,
appearing in his nightmares again and again.
And so I called him just to say
that I had rescued at least one
Vietnamese Buddha
from a war game
and to let him know
that the Buddha grins.