Amulets of O

Central to Đà Nẵng 
uncovered hundred faces 
switched up nouns.

I couldn’t write. Or 1968
I couldn’t speak. What part 
of me was shocked? There-

fore an orifice deceived; 
and I was razed to jumble 
pyrophoric kinks

ferocious as our compound 
partially declassified as tan. 
The amulet, a sentence

without limbs. I couldn’t 
walk out from such frames 
unharmed; and you were

there but saying nothing, 
comrade. I was just a girl. 
And you were just a girl.

Read more from Issue 18.2.