T

Tri Nhan 004 Confesses to Tri Nhan 206 at a Beach

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a line

drawn on sand

becomes a border

waves come

draw the line

never the same

they go

again

atomically

the border is gone

again

impossible

what if

on sand

what if

i draw them 

naturally

borders are

scissored by mountains

waves drown them

again

 

every where

in every one

naturally

again

what if

i drew

again

waves have nothing

your border

uncaring

all

that was

what if

then i stop

to drown

we can crash

how we move

the what ifs

the last line

i stop

some more

my border

like waves

carrying

drown them

your border                   remain drawn

my border

you
cannot
cross

you
cannot
cross

you
cannot
cross

you
cannot
cross

you
cannot
cross

i have seen
               you buried

beneath the
waves

what if

i call you

brother

& you
call me
brother

your brother

my brother

i feel      this story              again again:

one of us

a dog

the other

a wolf

wolf brother hunts the masters

dog brother helps the masters

hunt the wolves

helps them dig trenches

with our snouts

we can be either

never both at the same time

the masters
become
a soldier

they always do

they always do

they always do

they always do

they always do

when you & i
are off playing
thinking they
               are soldiering
               elsewhere

they see our feral
shadows
between sun &
horizon

they fire
               twice
they always
                fire twice
always one bullet
                       misses

sometimes
              before they fire at us
               you are the wolf
sometimes
               you are the dog

always the bullet enters you
always silence
your eyes jutting me
i say nothing

say nothing

say nothing

say nothing

say nothing

as i run off.

later
i dig
your trench
dutifully

the soldier
slices part of
your ribs to feed me
later

later
i try to find
your trench

but it is never
in the same place

atomically
impossible

my brother

this version of this story stops here

i look out at this beach

where i’ve buried you

again again

what if

i am something more unnatural

than dog brother &

wolf brother

& i can drown our master’s language into a knell
                                                                            ringing for the horizon to be ours

& i will reject that calling                                           because even the horizon
                                                                                                                       is a border

& i do not want you to always                   die alone

without
sound

Cover art: “Close Connections” by Gerburg Garmann

Mylo Lam

Mylo Lam (he/him) was born in Vietnam and currently lives in Los Angeles. He and his family are refugees from Cambodia. Mylo’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse, AAWW’s The Margins, MĀNOA Journal, Guesthouse, GASHER, and elsewhere. His multimedia work won Palette Poetry’s Brush & Lyre Prize, and his chapbook AND NOT/AND YET was the Editors' Choice by Quarterly West and will be published in Spring 2023.