Dead History
November 20, 2019
My language is dead history
Constantly singing in mourning
listening to my grandma taking flight longing to understand
the way my mouth does jasmine rice
I parrot con thương bà nội
but cannot hope to understand what she says back
she smiles at the awkward way my lips twist and skew trying to form the name of the family dog
as he chews on the fray of my Vietnamese dress
nonetheless