Twenty One | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

[a poem written for my beautiful husband,
a man with a heart of gold]

In a simpler time:
I was barely a graduate,
You in a hundred dollar suit
___ from Lowe’s.

Snickers bar for lunch,
Or wet sandwiches surprise.
(Already a gourmet cook!)
Your jacket hung
___ on thin shoulders.

We had two rooms,
Two pairs of chopsticks,
A bowl of rice,
Piled on with morning glory.

Days long ago
Months so pass by
Two hearts a light
Blink, twenty one years.

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.