“Chasm” by Hieu Minh Nguyen (poetry ’19)

Chasm

Monthly, my family calls from Vietnam
to inform us about the dead.

Their voices amplified through the speakerphone
while my mother sits upright in her bed

& performs a variety of mundane tasks:
sewing, word finds, removing nail polish.

Of course I want to assume things:
dead body, dead butter-yellow lawn—

If I try hard enough, I can gather
each story, like marbles, into my mouth

spit them into the drain & watch                                    
as hair climbs out.

[… continue reading at Poetry Daily.]