Inside Out & Back Again

by Thanhhà Lại

You deserve to grow up where you don’t worry about saving half a bite of sweet potato.

I love her more for her scars.

Mother’s face crinkles like paper on fire. She tells Brother Quang to clamp shut his mouth. People living on others’ goodwill cannot afford political opinions.

Whoever invented English should have learned to spell.

I never thought the name of my country could sound so sad.

Our lives will twist and twist, intermingling the old and the new until it doesn’t matter which is which.