I sing Hanoi’s hardy two-wheel drivers:
load-carrying magicians, traffic connivers.

When clouds decide to let torrents free,
they slip into something a little less comfy

then go back to delivering kegs, chickens, crops
so fast they dodge ’bout half the raindrops.

They poncho up, these fearless riders:
bicycle pedalers, motorbike striders.

The hanger-on-back just an extra bump
under the liner, like a camel, two humps.

The deluge could thunder like this all day,
but they just shrug and sigh and say,

“It’s part of life, this getting wet.
We gotta get where we gotta get!”

Photo: Note the high heels!

Take Long Bien bridge over the river,
water and wind makes you shiver.

Hail, storm, and lightning so hard to ignore!
Yet a whole city rides on through the downpour.

So inspiring, so courageous, so colorful: it’s huge!
I’ll poncho, like them, through any deluge.