hoechi-minh

[hoechi-minh]

bell-eater

spices in may                                      wet heat sweat a throbbing head rEaDs liKe vErtiGo there is a saxophone a fly bad internet videos lagging stopping get me out of here cool marble cat her hands a sliced finger spice spice everywhere i am stuck between two tiles two times 1 2 3 remind myself to breathe the back of his head pretend to not know me turn your head away pretend to not…

[hoechi-minh]

italian saloon

paper breeze ruffling leaves twenty men on a truck gigantic nostrils one faucet fingers caked with dust           blue lungi tin can cycle gathers rust      thirty steps a swollen face a child on a bust.                                                thin teeth for lice thick gaps for curls “menz salun not for girls”.            

[hoechi-minh]

30 second note

last night when my mother died in childbirth, i found out her favourite chair has a dent on it’s cushion some of the keys on her harmonium have stopped working, don’t know how long nobody knew of the pregnancy, they assumed it was menopause the smell of milk is a memory wedged in my throat she was bedridden in hiding, what was she hiding from? a man’s grief is a selfish grief, there is no…

[hoechi-minh]

love thy neighbour

but how? 30 minutes, enclosed in sweaty carpet box i ask myself, flicking droplets of sweat from my forehead. they land on my eyelashes. the woman in white chews her words, she speaks through her teeth. her character has drowned her two kids.  বাচ্চা narrowly escaping her molars sounds like she has chewed their cartilage. abandoned women’s spirits from two ends of the world try to find…

[hoechi-minh]

after the fight i wait and watch the girls with the forked tongues                                                  their cherrycola obsession, glistening sometimes on their lips                         guts blood bile brimming over             in a tube of lipgloss.                                       remove one rib then another,            melt organs with hunger and…

[hoechi-minh]

Blurb on The Flowers of Mold.

Ha Seong-nan’s ten short stories end in question marks. Coveted in poorly constructed apartments, often situated amidst filth, late capitalism in korea breeds like mold on the lives of the lower middle class. The struggles of living in urban decadence will leave one staring at a wall.

[hoechi-minh]

11th april haiku

sharp bend in the road                         in your dream you have died here        your grave is unmarked

[hoechi-minh]

banana

snap. peeling off the skin, biting into the soft sweet flesh. flies under the sun suckling sap off stuck to the bark. it is may now, tropical heat outside a coconut, turns into the colour of mangoes. snap. ice cream on the floor will melt but the fruit will not. SNAP. you have slipped and your ankle hurts. another victim of a peel. this is embarrassing for the both of us. we snap our tiffin…

[hoechi-minh]

brown shoes

Monkey bars for white children Gather rust after rain. Their tonsils ripen like cherries, they glisten Dew at dawn. Spring is for hunting, fishing, lessons in nature. You write an epitaph for all your friends.

[hoechi-minh]

You cannot undo a song take a pantomime paint it blue you see me for i see you this quagmire is also a whirlpool is also my mind on acid seeing colours you want me to follow a structure except i know there is no structure that i Cannot break take a song take a stage take my words for their sake come home bent and broken like a kitchen rag never to be stolen and fuck your rhyme fuck your meter…

[hoechi-minh]

haiku on

fish in clay skeleton and leaves paper flowers from my lover

[hoechi-minh]

elegy

samuel bucket is looked at everyday in remembrance of words on walls turn into thick sludge into losing balance trying to chase friends scraping knees elbows against ribs on a plate on a red table on a floor on a Tuesday is a rabid dog repeatedly slamming it’s head against a wall that is not there is a stream of snot and blood and vomit your weight onto my bed was yours to sleep in when you…

[hoechi-minh]

the trojan hog

that day, Odysseus’ bowel movements had held him captive in the Pit for a couple of hours. so they hired the rascal who played the hero in theatres and asked him to lead the Greeks. the rascal had improvised his own plan of action, had set an army of ants on the previous model. in haste, the Woodcutters Guild had carved a wooden pig and with grapeshots, the soldiers had climbed into the poor…

[hoechi-minh]

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval.

Blurb, because we do not do spoilers. Queer paradise has a mountain of half-eaten, getting apples. Jo, a biology student from Norway moves to the USA to find herself living in unconventional quarters. Here she starts to question, explore and learn till she eventually leaves it’s premises. (40 words)

[hoechi-minh]

Two minutes to eight, my grandfather comes home with a baboon, a baby and a pig. I empty my tin can room into a cardboard box. Two minutes past eight, my grandfather builds a cycle while the animals watch.

[hoechi-minh]

red to blue to green to skin red to blue to green to skin red to blue to green to skin nails snails sludge in nostrils old woman holding child’s head in sewage it is very very cold milk teeth chip keys turn in locks of hair haphazardly gutted child counting ribs it is very very cold blooded slimy snakes coil around her two feet tall child sickly mother locked behind white door shut everything…

[hoechi-minh]

1. The ground you walk on Using your mother’s exoskeleton Is the same ground made out of Layers of skin, hair, nails and teeth. 2. Toddlers die                  every two minutes your TV says                       you can cook noodles in two minutes too                      So I Traded my child for a bowl of food                         I can make more children only if I live. What…