My Scooter Goes Fast Down the Hill
I write poems because it feels like it is a miracle.
Birth Name as Alternate Ending
My mother named me Carmen after the opera.
More exotic than Sarah or Stacey,
the other white girls jealous of my Latin gift.
Something Beautiful
I wanted to save something beautiful for you.
The last three jewels of glistening pomegranate
balanced in the palm of my hand before I ate them.
Outside Quang Tri City, 1968
If I could choose one poem of mine that illustrates the way the war never truly leaves you, it would be this one. I wrote it to show that to the reader, that’s all.
Six Senryu from the Kitchen
in the kitchen
I don’t know how to act
meeting my flame
Thinking about Her
‘Thinking about Her’ is simply what it says. I was thinking about a friend of mine, but the surprise, at least for me, is the sad face of the statue. That’s what she said to me, this friend, one day in Ha Noi.