This book of poems is written in free-verse form, which is very popular, influent and contemporary. Twenty years is the time of which if just to sit and to think is a very short time. Yet, within the pace of the development of the human body, it is sequentially very long in which there are many different changes that belong to both the physical and the spiritual aspects of human beings. In memoirs or in thoughts, time has a relative value and is shortest as if things just happened in the past few minutes, but in the progress that belongs to the body, it has a more absolute value and is longer. To me, it serves as a memoir for all the events that occurred in the past, in my native country, Vietnam, as well as in the new life that I experienced in America. Some of the poems in this books are based on facts; others are just imaginations. When describing what happened to me, I tried not to focus very much on giving my own comments on the political topics and just wanted to focus on the description of what was called facts in my country after the North Communists had occupied the South Vietnam. I didn't really want to be a judge to adjudicate for what was already done because that was what most of the people in my country wanted to be done. I just want to let the history do the judgment for itself because what is going to happen will happen and what had to be done already was done. Hongvan Nguyen July 30, 2009