Poetry

Esperanto of Babel

by Khang-Ninh Đặng

“The cliff demands a”
            “jump” “High
on a Saturday night” “We look through”
“the pina colada” “seeking”
“another country” “bombed” “Distorted white”
“phosphorus” “We laugh because it tastes like”
“pineapple” “They finally caught”
“Greta Thunberg’s” “Selfie yacht” “Next month”
            “We can go by that homestay” “The pina
colada tastes” “metallic” “Or dare I say”
“Iron(y)” “The implications are not lost on”
“us” “Another country bombed” “on the TV screen”

“On the TV screen” “I see myself writing”
“this poem” “Something normal” “Some-
thing” “nice” “I have seen poets writing themselves”
“being burned” “lively” “How the fire wraps up the body”
“Like sunset wraps up my grandmother’s praying mattress”
“And snap” “Snap!” “The sinews burst” “His body stands”
“up” “briefly” “before waving goodbye” “to my language”
“Something normal” “Something” “nice” “My grandmother
finishing her afternoon prayers” “Still the same goodbye just
different wanderers” “One to peace” “Another to pieces of”
“themselves” “I see myself writing” “touching my elbows”
“asking” “How can you sit there” “typing” “as if the world”
“is somehow normal?” “Is somehow” “still nice?”

“Still” “another country” “bombed on the screen” “I cry to”
“Duolingo” “briefly” “before midnight” “Il n’est pas
un pays” “un pays” “Il n’est pas juste” “un pays”
            “a country” “from afar” “And her body”
“lighted” “with just enough tomorrow” “to make it unbearable”
“Her people” “strums” “a chord” “So many stars are moving”
“And I wonder” “half the Earth away” “where God rests still”
“Still” “should we dance?” “Still” “is it despair under our feet”
“from walking this lamentation” “that He wishes to wash away?”
“Washed away” “I have not had dinner” “before this pina colada”
“I say to my friend as she” “waves away” “alive”

“But before I can wave back” “and prove” “after
all” “my innocence” “my dear reader” “please”
“from this back of my throat” “where the gaps” “of spoken wor(l)ds”
            “end” “you should see them applauding” “limbs almost attach-
ed” “preparing to fall” “gladly” “into the after-”
            “thought” “becoming” “a(t)-”
 

                                    “las(t)” “(un)(ful)filled.”

Appeared in Issue Spring '26