On Longing and Staying: Reflections on Three Generations of Vietnamese, 50 Years After The War

There on the Pacific horizon burns a simmering glow.

For my grandmothers and grandfathers,

Squid ink, the Trường Tiền Bridge, American troops

Are all they know.

Having found footing as children and again as Americans, O

It is lost underwear, night school, work-from-home

For my parents;

There on the Atlantic burns a simmering glow.

Drugged under Capital One, Capitol Hill, go-go-go

Starbucks coffee, “short-form media,” Amazon deliveries;

They are all I know.

All the time, ông bà nội, ngoại miss the little ones, the Cung’s, the Do’s

And when my parents visit Huế, they miss how

There on the Pacific burns a simmering glow.

I make friends with Việt kiều, hell, Việt Cộng

We attend college protests and romanticize motorbike rides in Hà Nội

This is all we know.

Through headache and heartache 

Burning incense and burning horizons,

We stay until it is unbearable:

Always living, always alive

It is all we know.