Warm Rain

        rain is a blessing from god she said

     covered in hose water and mud 

washed out washington dc stars

    night sky   exit window to low roof

  thousand-miles-away wall scene 

hand-painted on rice paper 

                    she knew her worth

            the halo born 

       Buddha blest she was 

   precipitation (n.)   “act or fact of falling headlong”

Unrelated Future Tense

with me being a bastard
and Saigon tea    will ask about my language
people will ask about bar girls 
even without food in the poems
they will smell fish sauce and phở
ask about ‘the war’ which is to say
about men fathers and soldiers
about white Americans what
about them
about them
about white Americans what
about men fathers and soldiers
ask about ‘the war’ which is to say
they will smell fish sauce and phở
even without food in the poems
people will ask about bar girls 
and Saigon tea    will ask about my language
with me being a bastard

—

Hoa Nguyen is the author of several books of poetry including As Long As Trees Last, Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008 and Violet Energy Ingots. Her forthcoming book, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure, will be published in April 2021 by Wave books. She currently serves as co-chair of Writing at the Milton Avery School for Fine Arts at Bard College and poetry faculty for Miami University’s low residency MFA program. Born in the Mekong Delta, Hoa was raised and educated in the United States and has lived in Canada since 2011.