I held him together
as long as I could, she says.

He stopped working,
stopped coming upstairs.

He was like tissue paper
coming apart in water.

Like smoke in my hands.
It had nothing to do

with you, baby. You left
when you had to.

I met a woman once
who worked on pianos.

Said it was a hard job.
The tools, the leverage.

The required ear. I love it,
she said, but it’s brutal.

The second I step away
it’s already falling out of tune.

Edgar Kunz

after Franca Mancinelli

All water flows toward loneliness.
Loneliness is a black eye, a gleaming pit.
We have yet to split loneliness like an atom.
Loneliness arrives on a leash of scorpions.
In my skull, loneliness opens like a parachute.
It’s illegal to chain loneliness to a fence.
Flickers tunnel through loneliness to build nests.
I sprinkle a spoon of sugar over loneliness.
In some languages, loneliness is imperfect.
Antlers crown the bald head of loneliness.
Like rough trade, loneliness won’t kiss you.
Loneliness is crouched in a tree, afraid of dirt.
In the dark, loneliness ripens too quickly.
Beneath the roof of loneliness, my blood drifts.

Eduardo C. Corral

We had a great time at the scouting camping trip over the weekend even though the weather was cold at night. On Saturday, the kids had a full day of activities. They mixed up with other packs in the DMV area.

One of the highlights was the performance during the campfire program. One of the troops performed a Halloween tune based on “The Addams Family” theme song. The troop leader taught us the lines to sing along. He hummed the riff then sang, “The Thằng Lồn family.”

I flipped the fuck out. Did he just say “Thằng Lồn?” I realized the troop name was “Thăng Long,” but he had to change the diacritics to match the melody and the result was unfortunate. After the program, I confirmed with other leaders and parents to see if it was just me, but I was not alone. One of the leaders pointed out that he heard the same thing because he was right next to the guy who was singing the tune.

The unfortunate misplacement of diacritics had proven that even a Vietnamese speaker can an ancient name of Hà Nội into something completely. In my book, Vietnamese Typography, I emphasized the important of diacritical position to avoid incidents like this one.

A marketing email with the subject line: “Opportunity for vietnamesetypography”

I stopped reading the first part of the email:

Donny,

This is a really interesting site on Japanese typography. It was cool to learn about some of the history from your site.

The person who read my website learned something cool that I did no write. Japanese typography?

Biết cha đã mãi đi rồi
Vẫn nguyên cảm xúc bồi hồi tiếc thương
Giờ cha đã ở Thiên đường
Con cháu ở lại nhớ thương cạn lời
Biết là quy luật muôn đời
Sinh lão bệnh tử phải rời nhân gian
Mà sao vẫn cứ lệ tràn
Mà sao vẫn cứ muôn vàn tiếc thương.

Nguyễn Khắc Thiện

I am not the first person you loved.
You are not the first person I looked at
with a mouthful of forevers. We
have both known loss like the sharp edges
of a knife. We have both lived with lips
more scar tissue than skin. Our love came
unannounced in the middle of the night.
Our love came when we’d given up
on asking love to come. I think
that has to be part
of its miracle.

This is how we heal.
I will kiss you like forgiveness. You
will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms
will bandage and we will press promises
between us like flowers in a book.
I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat
on your skin. I will write novels to the scar
of your nose. I will write a dictionary
of all the words I have used trying
to describe the way it feels to have finally,
finally found you.

And I will not be afraid
of your scars.

I know sometimes
it’s still hard to let me see you
in all your cracked perfection,
but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn
more brilliant than the sun
or the nights you collapse into my lap
your body broken into a thousand questions,
you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I will love you when you are a still day.
I will love you when you are a hurricane.

Clementine von Radics

Mới đó mà hai năm đã trôi qua từ khi ba lìa xa cõi trần. Đời người có đến rồi cũng có đi. Chỉ có tình thương tồn tại mãi trong tim. Những lời nói uy lực cùng những tiếng cười rộn rã của ba vẫn luôn sống mãi trong con. Nhớ đến ba là nhớ đến những phút giây êm đềm ở quê nhà. Ngày giỗ của ba, con xin thắp nén hương cầu nguyện cho linh hồn ba được bình yên trên cõi niết bàn.

Hồn nương theo gió cha đi
Bỏ con thơ dại biết gì mà trông
Xứ người còn lại trời đông
Cô đơn côi cút cay nồng gian truân.

Đời người một kiếp thiên luân
Tử sanh xoay chuyển thấm nhuần thịt da
Ơn cha rộng lớn bao la
Lệ nào khóc muộn trăng tà mờ lu.

Trích từ “Giỗ Cha” của Nguyễn Tâm

On Saturday, I acquired another used snowboard. It’s a 156cm Capita board with Flow step-in bindings. The board is way too tall for me to ride, but the seller wanted to get rid of it. He sold it to me for $20. Maybe when I become an intermediate snowboarder, I’ll give it a go. I am not even sure if I can learn snowboarding this coming winter. We’ll see.

I still need to find a snowboard package for Xuân. He wants to learn with me. Though I am sure if he can learn anything from me, having my son to learn together sounds like fun. We’ll switch back and forth between skiing and snowboarding. Đán is already committed to snowboarding. He has left skiing behind. In contrast, Đạo is sticking with skiing and refusing to pick up snowboarding. Vương will continue to ski and I hope to teach him the basics.

My wife still needs a pair of skis. I sold her K2 Jr. pair. It didn’t seem to support her weight. I am having a hard time finding a women pair of skis in the 135cm-140cm range. She might just end up using my Head pair, which I really love, but might be too long for her to learn.

I have been learning snowboarding on my carpet to get familiar with the beginner skills. I am pretty sure it will feel complete different on the snow. This will be my last attempt at snowboarding. If I fail, I will focus completely on skiing and I will resell or give away my boards. We’ll see. I will be blogging about my progress here.

I married the earth.
Now life is simple.
I sit in a chair
and speak to the things around me.
Hey clock, hey life, hey mirror!
When they don’t speak back
I laugh or I weep,
whatever they feel like doing,
and the moon comes closer, closer.

Mary Ruefle (from the Strays series)

Look at mami: eyes blue, 5'2"
I approached her—“Hi, boo, how you?
Pony skin Louie? Oh, you fly too
You a stewardess? Good, ma—I fly too”

Cam’ron (an excerpt from “Down & Out”)