As the trishaw rolls to a stop,
I spy a girl standing on the footpath
in Rue Catinat, near the Continental,
twirling a hoop around her midriff,
spinning it with enough torque to hold it up—
the supple undulations of her stomach
propelling it round and round.
A dark curtain of black hair falls
across her face as the bracelets
on her wrists catch the sun. For a moment,
I see Mai in her nightgown as she runs
into our bedroom and leaps
at the mosquito net, tumbling across the bed,
all veiled and twisting, her giggles
announcing her presence like a pealing bell.I have a sudden urge to throw a handful
of coins at this girl to buy her hoop,
even if I have to pay more than ten times
its worth so I can send it to my daughter.
But I can’t post it to Hanoi.
And what if she doesn’t remember me?
I haven’t explained my absence, why
I left in the middle of the rainy season,
how one evening I was lifting her up
to light the sticks of sandalwood incense
before our ancestor shrine and the next
day I had fled. She laughed when we saw
the sandpipers at Haiphong, wading
on the mudflats, their long bills
darting into the water like chopsticks
immersed in a steaming soup.
The sandpipers fly south to escape
the winter, before returning.
Yet two winters have now passed
since I last held my daughter.
- FREE: 20 Poets anthology
- 91: NO THEME VIIISUBMIT to C Gaskin 90: MONSTERwith N Curnow, coming soon! 89: DOMESTICwith N Harkin 88: TRANSQUEERwith S Barnes and Q Eades 87: DIFFICULTwith O Schwartz & H Isemonger 86: NO THEME VIIwith L Gorton 85: PHILIPPINESwith Mookie L and S Lua 84: SUBURBIAwith L Brown and N O'Reilly 83: MATHEMATICSwith Fiona Hile 82: LANDwith J Stuart and J Gibian 81: NEW CARIBBEANwith Vladimir Lucien 80: NO THEME VIwith Judith Beveridge 57.1: EKPHRASTICwith C Atherton and P Hetherington 57: CONFESSIONwith Keri Glastonbury 56: EXPLODE with Dan Disney 55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUSwith M Chakraborty and K MacCarter 55: FUTURE MACHINES with Bella Li 54: NO THEME V with F Wright and O Sakr 53.0: THE END with Pam Brown 52.0: TOIL with Carol Jenkins 51.1: UMAMI with Luke Davies and Lifted Brow 51.0: TRANSTASMAN with Bonny Cassidy 50.0: NO THEME IV with John Tranter 49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH with M Hall and S Seita 49.0: OBSOLETE with Tracy Ryan 48.1: CANADA with K MacCarter and S Rhodes 48.0: CONSTRAINT with Corey Wakeling 47.0: COLLABORATION with L Armand and H Lambert 46.1: MELBOURNE with Michael Farrell 46.0: NO THEME III with Felicity Plunkett 45.0: SILENCE with Jan Owen 44.0: GONDWANALAND with Derek Motion 43.1: PUMPKIN with Kent MacCarter 43.0: MASQUE with Ann Vickery 42.0: NO THEME II with Gig Ryan 41.1: RATBAGGERY with Duncan Hose 41.0: TRANSPACIFIC with J Rowe and M Nardone 40.1: INDONESIA with Kent MacCarter 40.0: INTERLOCUTOR with Libby Hart 39.1: GIBBERBIRD with Sarah Gory 39.0: JACKPOT! with Sam Wagan Watson 38.0: SYDNEY with Astrid Lorange 37.1: NEBRASKA with Sean Whalen 37.0: NO THEME! with Alan Wearne 36.0: ELECTRONICA with Jill Jones
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