SAIGON, South Vietnam, (Reuters)—

Wartime curfew hours issued

for all servicemen and local citizenry

are 1 AM to 5:30 AM

I break curfew at 4 AM

I know nothing.

I fear nothing.

I enter the world feet first.

My father turns off the headlights

He follows darkened curves by memory

Beside him my mother labors

Sometimes in silence

Sometimes in a volley of accusations

Something is wrong

The baby is coming too quickly

My father presses on the gas

as much as he dares

Too fast you draw attention

Too slow you are a target

Snipers shoot twice

The first shot - the kill

The second shot - the warning

whether American or Viet Cong

In the darkness no one cares

I am at one with the shadowy light

I am neither Viet nor American

I revel in my own skin

All my senses heightened

in this civil twilight hour

of my birth.