Hieu Minh Nguyen | POEMS

The narrow clearing down to the river I walk alone, out of breath ​ my body catching on each branch. Small children maneuver around me. ​ Often, I want to return to my old body a body I also hated, but hate less ​ given knowledge. Sometimes my friends—my friends ​ who are always beautiful & heartbroken look at me like they know ​ I will die before them. I think the life I want ​ is the life I have, but how can I be sure? There are days when I give up on my body ​ but not the world. I am alive. I know this. Alive now ​ to see the world, to see the river rupture everything with its light. "Changeling" —POETRY Magazine, 2017 ​ ​ "Probe" —POETRY Magazine, 2017 ​ "B.F.F." —BuzzFeed, 2017 ​ ​ "Notes on Staying" —The Offing, 2016 ​ ​ “White Boy Time Machine: Software” —Guernica, 2016 ​ ​ “Cockfight” —The Paris-American, 2015 ​ ​ “Reunion” —Vinyl, 2014 ​ © 2017 Hieu Minh Nguyen - All rights reserved

The narrow clearing down to the river I walk alone, out of breath ​ my body catching on each branch. Small children maneuver around me. ​ Often, I want to return to my old body a body I also hated, but hate less ​ given knowledge. Sometimes my friends—my friends ​ who are always beautiful & heartbroken look at me like they know ​ I will die before them. I think the life I want ​ is the life I have, but how can I be sure? There are days when I give up on my body ​ but not the world. I am alive. I know this. Alive now ​ to see the world, to see the river rupture everything with its light. "Chang