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    Honi Soit
    Home»Creative

    Concessions

    They say Nguyen translates as musician or musical instrument so I concede perhaps my artistry belongs to my ancestors.
    By Jayden NguyenMarch 28, 2023 Creative 2 Mins Read
    Art by Miles Huynh
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    My imagination has been formed by the confines of English in this white country. I take this opportunity to concede my losses; to only think of my stories through speech foreign to my heritage.

    i. 

    I concede to my grandmothers & grandfathers that I

    should have learned our tongues before English.

    My own skin is doused in bronze or olive,

    I know no difference between mother &

    father. Never shall I learn wisdoms from taps

    flown fresh from mountaintops

    & islands whose origins

    purposes my breaths.

    Of your faces, the one unknown to me–

    abuelito, I only hear you in myth, spoken from

    dad,

    & I fear what would have happened if Nicaragua

    never beckoned you back home.

    Ii.

    They say Nguyen translates as musician or musical

    instrument so I concede perhaps my artistry belongs to my

    ancestors. I never knew Vietnam had ancient playwrights

    & poets, since our faces still reek of wartime.

    Nor had I come to realise our voyage

    is an ode to the sea.

    Our flesh binds those centuries spent tending

    rice fields in valleys where sunlight shone golden. Perhaps the

    gold sunk into our skin.

    To my grandmother and grandfather–

    bà ngoại, ông ngoại, to me

    your names mean mistress of waves/master of wind. 

    iii. 

    I believe the tears that stream down your cheeks

    are odes to the oceans you travelled for me.

    Let your hearts afloat.

    I wait to see you again abuelita, once I

    return to Forestville you can remind me

    of God’s blessings.

    But I tell you,

    I did not swirl from dust

    & grow ribs to take form of man.

    I concede, my bravery is a pool

    for you to witness– for those rivers you behold,

    I will never understand.

    ACAR Honi 2023 poem poetry

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