w a i t i n g
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P H A N N H I E N H A O
On the last day of summer when it was very hot I walked out of the house
with a piece of chalk. There was only one street filled with ugly houses
uncomfortably facing each other. I walked down the middle wearing a
bronze tintinnabulum so that blind men could avoid me. At the end of the
street I stopped. There I had an appointment with an airplane with a
single wing, a relative I had met only once, and a prophet who could no
longer foretell dangerous omens. He was just a grasshopper with its legs
broken. While waiting I drew a circle then hopped up and down performing
the shaman’s rain dance. As usual all those I was waiting for would
arrive late. There was only a child passing by. He had the look of an
unused but accidentally exposed roll of film. Holding a long rod, he was
beating the ground as he walked.
translated from the Vietnamese by Linh Dinh
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