Today The Guardian announced: “Vietnam

declares being LGBTQ+ is ‘not an illness’

in victory for gay rights,” so I might

be free where my parents grew

up with my short hair & still

be female because long hair

means: đó là một người con gái!

Không phải cái thằng!

When Luca chopped

it all off behind the Hudson House

in Altadena, they looked at me

& said, this cut is meant for you.

 

Later, I visited Boise, Idaho

& the weight of it continued to fall

as my mother’s side

of the family stopped:

Alina, you’re too picky.

 

I want to run through

the fields where they ca dao,

among the potatoes & future rice.

 

They see me here in America.

On a drive to a friend’s wedding,

my father says: you don’t have to.

(In 2018, I sat with him with a letter

that I translated with the help

of Google Translate©.)

I ask him: You know

I can’t marry a man, right? Of course,

I do, you told me, remember?

I want to say I remember everything.