Excerpts from
A
L L _ A R O U N D _ T H A T _ E M P T I E S _ O U T
By
Linh Dinh 2003 $12
ISBN 1-930068-19-0
Subpress/Tinfish
Design by Stuart Henley
from "All Around What Empties Out"
LANG MASTERY
A blindfolded native speaker reenacts continuously the syntax of a fading tongue he cannot decipher having not so long ago emigrated by a lisping dinghy down the muddy white stream of gunboat diplomacy.
Lying on the seeded floor, the wise coolie opines: Once I thought it would be cool to always be flummoxed by a fair femme of this come-on epoch. Once I thought it would be cool to schlep through this newspangled alphabet.
Have you, Sir, by chance, perused the illustrated biography of this moon-walking American?"
Linh Dinh is the author of a collection of stories, Fake House (Seven Stories Press) and three chapbooks of poems. His poetry is widely anthologized. He is living in Certaldo, Italy as a guest of the International Parliament of Writers.
