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2024 Academy of American Poets Prize

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Coma

by Annie Nguyễn







i pluck the tassel and move it to the left of my cap, my first breath of life, signifying the beautiful end to your story in america and                     you will saunter back to vietnam          with your fishing rod with your wedding ring           with your phone          without your boxing gloves          without your jeans without your wife          back to your old hammock                                                                                 what’s a free man, if not a single suitcase? college taught me how to ask questions                     like how to know i don’t have something i need           we are all infants                    inhabiting a cry and four years of college                              and i can count the number of                     times i                    called           you i am          just now learning i need—                     maybe just                     just the clink of two beers                    and                     even if           you die over there          i need to                                      i need to hold your calloused hand           until you                     feel           like you were                               born in this country                                                             what’s the point of freedom if i can’t intertwine mine with yours?           a memory is not           enough          to be a boat           even if loving you is the distance traveled and                     dial tones, a lot of them over a lifetime, echo into a flatline.

 





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