{"id":7276,"date":"2014-09-19T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=7276"},"modified":"2014-09-26T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T12:04:09","slug":"internment-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/internment-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Internment Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"internmentcamp\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Father came to teach
\nThe American way
\nOf industry, the assembly
\nLine of modern life<\/p>\n

And fell in love
\nWith snowcapped Fuji
\nWith temple bells
\nAnd monks in saffron<\/p>\n

He studied Zen
\nFollowed the path
\nOf knowing and not knowing
\nStayed when mother died of pox<\/p>\n

The war began soon after
\nThe soldiers came to our house
\nOf rice paper and bamboo
\nTook us away<\/p>\n

To an internment camp
\nIn downtown Nagasaki
\nFor it was clear that
\nWe could not be trusted<\/p>\n

Father died in weeks
\nOr months of wormy rice
\nAnd the beatings
\nAnd I was left alone<\/p>\n

They called me round eye
\nThey called me long nose
\nThey called me dirty
\nAnd taught me how to bathe<\/p>\n

I grew in my cell
\nInto a gawky youth
\nThey asked one day
\nIf I would join the army<\/p>\n

Yes, I cried, if it
\nWill get me out of here
\nThey laughed and locked
\nMe in again<\/p>\n

And then the bomb came
\nTore away the cell
\nAnd all the camp
\nAnd all the city<\/p>\n

And left me alone
\nAlive, I cannot explain
\nOr tell you why it was
\nThat I was spared<\/p>\n

To wander through
\nThe broken city, searching
\nIn the molten dust
\nFor scraps of food<\/p>\n

Fighting off the hungry
\nDogs for anything
\nThat could be eaten
\nAny body more than bone<\/p>\n

The invaders came
\nWith round eyes
\nWith long noses
\nWith uniforms and rifles<\/p>\n

I tried to hide but
\nOne of them saw me
\nSaw my color and
\nMy race<\/p>\n

And took me to a base
\nAnd cleaned me up
\nAnd put me on a ship
\nTo what they said was home<\/p>\n

Oh Father forgive me
\nFor in this place
\nThey tell me is my land
\nI know not what to do<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Early in his career, Charles had an underground play (\u201cVisigoths\u201d) produced in Los Angeles, which led to script writing contracts for several TV series. He hated the work, fled Hollywood, got an MFA in poetry, and went to Iran to teach literature at several Universities. For five years, he edited Seizure, a magazine of poetry and fiction. He has also been a cab driver, Skid Row social worker, refugee officer in camps in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Costa Rica, and owner of a tour company. Recent published work includes stories and poems .in Liebamour, Writers Bloc, Commonline Journal, The Bactrian Room, Scythe, and Blueline, and articles in Adirondack Life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father came to teach
\nThe American way
\nOf industry, the assembly
\nLine of modern life<\/p>\n

And fell in love
\nWith snowcapped Fuji
\nWith temple bells
\nAnd monks in saffron<\/p>\n

He studied Zen
\nFollowed the path
\nOf knowing and not knowing<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":7878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7276"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7981,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions\/7981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}