“mekong woman” by Robina Nguyen1 min read

Illustration by Anderson X. Lee

Kigan-mon—
a silent plea for harvest
in Buddhist prayer beads

your calloused fingers dig
deep grooves into the
rotting flesh of sugarcane—

daughter of typhoons,
you dipped your toes in
its eye—

ten days later,
vengeful saltwater seeped into
your soil, spoiling

a legacy of farmers
whose blistered feet bled
into the Mekong Delta.

Robina Nguyen (she/her) is a Vietnamese-Canadian student and freelance writer based in Toronto. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Shameless Magazine, Blue Marble Review, West End Phoenix, HaluHalo Journal and Ambré Magazine, among others.