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embarkment Hà Tây, Việt Nam
one-legged man forgets himself arpeggio of dark the fake ray bans he'd been trying to sell for weeks are still in his hands shiftywind shaft of straw movement in stones ashes lilting to is he glad he hadn't sold that pair to see the sun better or the moon the darkness between behind sheets a journey impossible to exist as twilight forever for seventy-five years fat rats scutter & sup on dog feces forever a person can live the cone-hatted women mud-smirched men of the fields see ambered time and smooth underbellies of songs rise into mist children inch out with buckets of mauve ink-water at the behest of teachers pale reed soaked in whispers are told to look into the water to view the eclipse not the sun itself behind the image the imagination workers wade in hay ears beyond the winded birds behind words the intent a distortion sinewy arms dangling mouths eyes to another world smarting by the chant of their braced bodies summing the nature of existence a total eclipse the one-legged man removes his glasses squints
Mộng Lan
The poem, "embarkment" (originally published in The North American Review), is from Mong-Lan’s second books of poems, in the instant, which is looking for a publishing home. Mong-Lan’s first book of poems, Song of the Cicadas, won the 2000 Juniper Prize and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Her website may be found at www.monglan.com
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