Lê Vĩnh Tài, an acclaimed Vietnamese poet, born 1966 in Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam. The retired doctor is still a resident of the Western Highlands, an acclaimed businessman in Buon Ma Thuot.Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the poet and translator, born 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.—your mother did not give you a nameshe instead tucked away all the rhymesinside her recollectionfor youthe poem, you use itto travelwhereverpeople may try to bid and bargainyou know that evenrhymes, like the shoesyou wear on the streetafter the times you’ve foundcustomers, those who like to buyand evade tax when they sellyou like a tree after a stormthe wind can make yousick in the stomachyou end up with gastritisgo homein an ambulance, thus many things maywet youno one to check or confiscateyour mother will place a dream in your heartthrough mystics slipsonce or twiceeach night, dreams in a tiny roomcausing your chest to shrinklike the rhymes and wordsin a poem, consolidated, each and every nightand yet you’re thinking abouthow every morning you’re wakenby your children cryingMothers are the source of lifenot just somethingone dwell onwho vouch for youwhen the wind is highgrey skiesand it’s wet.

Lê Vĩnh Tài | NIGHT & THE CONTINUING FALLING VERSES – ĐÊM VÀ NHỮNG KHÚC RỜI – a pantheon of meaning (20) — SONGNGUTAITRAM