“I was at a loose end (didn’t know what to do -to kill the time)” * | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

so I went off on a tangent and read her copied verse
her verse in a language second to mine ( English )
the letters tipsy turvy the sentences reverse

it was there – that poem the original
my mother’s tongue my first, his ( Vietnamese )
he meant this she thought what! ( I didn’t want to speak – dumbfounded)

I said nothing ( smiled ), and she
she went off into some world ( her ego )
…
so passing are the days, since “I went reading it”
I spoke – we ALL smiled ( she may have shed tears )
and the world was that colour ( baby blue )
______
MAY 2019

*thơ Uyên-nguyên Sydney

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.