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

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.