To Eat a Mango after War
by Hillary Nguyen
Carve around the seed:
Flesh of fibrous sunset
That stays gold. Chew,
Taste my father’s nostalgia
On the molar, the sweet
Sap of thanh xuân, in apart-
Ment building One, we,
He says, used to
Wrench it open—the seed,
That is—and hollow it out.
Then, catch a cricket. Để Ba
Kể cho con nghe: at night,
In the grasses, hear how
He sings? Flood him out—
How violent water can be, just
A little nước—trap him with a cup, a jar,
And, từ từ, place him in the seed.
Welcome to your new room,
House, country, alien home,
Tự nhiên thôi, Mr. Cricket,
Quê does not exist anymore,
So sing for us, having
Everything but knowledge
Of what could be better …
Maybe the mango tasted
Better that way: gnawing
The seed a privilege, licking
Those last drops of gold.
Did any of those naked seeds
Ever grow into another tree,
Someplace, Ba? Another home-
Town, another quê? Did Cricket, warm
In his new Cricket quê,
Chirp happily, knowing
Everything but knowledge
Of what could be better, knowing
Everything but that death
Precedes and is lured by
His singing, did his body
Ever decay into fertilizer
For another tree of cricket
Coffins, and by the way,
Ba ơi, did any of them
Ever learn to get out?
⸺
Translations of the Vietnamese
Thanh xuân: “youth,” literally “pure spring”Để Ba kể cho con nghe: “Let Father tell you, Child, so you can listen …”
Từ từ: gradually and cautiously
Tự nhiên thôi: (1) “Make yourself at home,” or (2) “It’s just nature” (tự nhiên: “nature”; thôi: a term of resignation)
Nước: (1) “water,” or (2) “country”
Quê: (1) “homeland, motherland,” or (2) “shameful, embarrassment”
Ba: “Father”
Ba ơi: “Father” (ơi: a term of endearment, or used to call someone’s attention)
Hillary Nguyen (she/her) is a Vietnamese-American writer from the Bay Area who enjoys experimenting with creative mediums (including poetry, photography, and fiber arts), as well as exploring eclectic and whimsical places. Her work has been featured in midsummer magazine, One Art Poetry, Hot Pot Magazine, and LL Anthology: Circles.