History Lesson from Anh Hai

Duy Đoàn

I spoke to Great-Aunt tonight. She sounded like her sister.It had been fifty years since they’d last spoken; mom said they cried over the phone.Bà Nội used to always tell me, Đi tu đi con. But I knowThe difference between tu and tù is one mark.Fifty years since they’d last spoken; mom said they cried.The night dad disappeared into a jungle, Bà Nội also cried.The difference between tu and tù is one mark.Once I heard about a monk who died setting himself on fire.Bà Nội cried the night dad disappeared into a jungle.It was a sad time. A nun and monk were made to fornicate in the street.Once I heard about a monk who died setting himself on fire.Twenty years later the rodent problem—200 đồng per severed tail.It was a sad time. A nun and monk were made to fornicate in the street.Bà Nội used to always say, Đi tu đi con. But I know.Twenty years later the rodent problem—200 đồng per severed tail.I spoke to Great-Aunt tonight. She sounded like Bà Ngoại.

Glossary

Anh Hai – older brother, the oldest son
Bà Nội – paternal grandmother
đi tu đi con – enter the priesthood; become a monk
tu – the process of entering the priesthood
tù – prison
Bà Ngoại – maternal grandmother

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Duy Đoàn (pronounced zwē dwän / zwee dwahn) is the author of We Play a Game (Yale University Press), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. A Kundiman fellow, he received an MFA in poetry from Boston University. His second collection, Zombie Vomit Mad Libs, is forthcoming from Alice James Books, November 2024.

Cover of "We Play A Game" by Duy Doan

New Haven, Connecticut

Yale Univeristy

“These are intimate, mischievous poems, alternately wry, forthright, vulnerable, winking, and sincere.”
—Nina MacLaughlin, The Boston Globe

“Refreshingly unshowy, Doan’s collection is not an obvious choice for a big prize, but it reveals itself to be a deserving one.”
Publishers Weekly

“Bold, bright, yet decidedly unsettled and unsettling, this first collection . . . doesn’t so much explore Doan’s Vietnamese American experience as defy it.”
Library Journal (starred review), Top Spring Poetry

Winner of the 2019 Lamda Literary Awards, Bisexual Poetry category

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