Hoa Nguyen has it, the modern click, furthering what has been started by Notley, Mayer, Kyger.
Hoa is the next step.
She's amazingly ballsy in the right way on the page.
And with such immaculate swank and precision.
Half the time not quite knowing exactly what she is doing, which is the best way, refreshingly, she is simply being.
That's not exactly easy.
[ BA ]
UPSIDEDOWN AGAIN
Held by the roots like the cilantro
beaten in my mortar
Make a chicken marinade and broil
Could pluck feathers after scalding?
O circled fucked-up change
which is the mother of us
and ethics What of that
Chicken feathers
to grow your organic vegetables
The wild will root it out
The pigs dig them up your roots
Lovely smiling pig to string up on a pole
Fatten you o lovely
I am the omnipotent narrator noting
the age-wrinkles around his neck
The play we make in the snow in Colorado
a survivalist trick A snow-made den
to live in or wave your umbrella
from your stranded car
at the rescuing helicopter
I can't stomach all these circles
or my head noise
even cartoon songs
from animated Cat in the Hat
in the woods walking the woo woo
labyrinth (alone)
I have fetal tissue in my brain
literally
and Chinquapin Oak on my placenta in the rain
It hasn't rained like this
since they were born
meaning our boys
A woman is the person
the first person
like a chicken before an egg
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hoa Nguyen
Red Juice
Poems 1998-2008
Wave Books, 2014
