For Ian's translations of Co May
Tue Sy
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In the photo, Than Nhien is seated on the left. On the right is Ian Bui, the translator.
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For more Poetry
Than Nhien
Translated by Ian Bui
Fetus
They pulled
from my soul and between
your thighs
a reptilian fetus
an unwinged angel
a feeble termite
a hideous, yellowed
stain on the clinic's wall
a diseased lifebud asphyxiating
an afternoon floating in a daze
I plant flowers and make poems—
once I saw terrified young girls
trembling through that door
then at night dreamed of tiny angels
walking their first steps
and morphed larvae taking flight
after a rain
The walls have been repainted with a new color
I've sterilized these lines
like a doctor sterilizing his implements—
jaded by the slamming of doors
that open to the chapel of conscience
Stupefied, dawn!
