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JoJo Nguyen Feb 2019
This might be the Real
Transmission Mechanism

The niggerly water
lubricating a Trickle
Down

Greens in Rich hand
gets miserly saved

Yet earned on Poor back
miraculously makes it Rain

Washingtons fall
a few Jacksons scorch
land in lap

Even a Benjamin
swallows Trick Dollar
to **** a positive cash
flow

Bills stick on teats
just enough to buy

a comfort Doritos
bag a Brand name

snack for her little boy
So he'll grow up knowing

What value-added Marketing
taste like.
JoJo Nguyen Oct 2018
(I came into a Stagg Street bathroom.)

There're only two-- the shared one in the hall and in a master bedroom.
Our shared lid was down, and spotted with a yellow accident realized.

(I sopped up the mess, and dropped spilled Toilette Paper into flushing water.)

Why is there a Vietnamese renter sitting in the bathtub?
Was he trying to crap in the tub?
We talked and he said the toilet was stuffed, but it wasn't.

Ta Ree's bathroom looks out onto the pool.

(I shut the bathroom door and locked it with that weird turning lock, and looked at the pool, another inside room.)

(I see a slender hand.)

We adjusted our dreaming angle, and it turned into a young Ta Ree.
She had on a remote face, already detached from us.
Under slumber's possible tendrils, a small smile appeared on her face, connecting my Inside with our outside.

(I laughed; She was still with us.)
JoJo Nguyen Sep 2018
I am the eggman
you are the spoon man
we are the Walrus.
Earthly pluripotent garden
with shark attacks

I am the shallow water
you are the whitewater
we are the Foam
Heavenly layers differentiating
with each successive Wave

I am the Brand
you are the religion
we are the Cortex
Solar same same but different
Inside Out development
Mashing streams. LH.Chryssa+me
JoJo Nguyen Sep 2018
My existence Transparent
Yellow perch precariously half eaten
On ledgers of our Life
Win/Lost columns
Love as defeat
and Possession as Victory
or a slab
underneath which
Death sums up
I don't really think you were a defeat, but then what are you? Someone I will never see again in this vast world, someone not on my networks anymore, someone who's Voice I will never hear again. You have disappeared and have become a ghost.
>linked.data.//
Becoming Ghost by Cathy Linh Che
Things Keep Sorting Themselves by Jane Hirshfield
JoJo Nguyen Aug 2018
I hear a great Joke
The punchline comes
And I understand wit's dagger twist
It's too funny
I laugh, laugh and laugh
I'll remember the Joke
so that when I meet another Jake
I can decide whether
to tell the joke or fall in Love

I fell for a big Jake
the punchline came
I understand life's dagger twist
It's too sad
I cry, cry, and cry
I'll remember Jake
so that when I hear another big Joke
I can decide whether
to fall in love or cry laughter again
JoJo Nguyen Apr 2018
Save me in Preservatives I trust
Something like vinegar or briny Word extending me
As an add-on to faint hearted lands spurting
blood offerings to the massive goodness flight

Bad airline brands are barely mentioned while
I fall pass small screen shots on back headed Seats
to our Heritage sure room

I find good advice under glass
blessed plumage from a Jurassic age
that guide our voice controlled nights

My right hand justice isn't interested in Absolute
but hopes with Mama heart and soul

Leave me outside the mechanized church
underneath our short coated lives to flash
Joy and her sister Faith
pleasuring our cheap tomorrow
JoJo Nguyen Jan 2018
There is a Soldier I know

Her short cadence
with military precision
is always careful

At every bridge she
breaks step
to avoid foolish
oscillations a peeking midriff jog
pounding shoes
on asphalt pavement
hard could these send infatuated
hopes to destructive swing

Who knows what chasm
fantasized are crossed
Who knows what war
wages and what broken
battle of bulges lost
Why burn another Leader
ego living in some
Downfall Bunker

There is a Soldier I know

Her short cadence
in boots bare run faster
than legged strut

Every night she comes
through a backroom window
protected by a silver
Spoon at best
and every morning she
survives as golden tongue
poetry written on
our wired cages

There is a Soldier I know

Her name is Eden
and her hands are hot
with Dante's inferno

Her adolescent face is cool
and on each ear
a ring of Blue Herons

Every day her short cadence
brings rouge life
to our clay complexion
and every night
her milky whey
lips wonder lost
in our King Lear
kabuki song
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