for Dan Ryan After we spoke of the dead at Giờ Linh and Cồn Thiên, I thought of the bird that came to nest ina dead tree; the deep rhythm, melody as she built it stick by stick, bringing mud and wet leavesand bits of paper to mortar it into place; the exquisite...
Stefan served with U.S. Army Special Forces during the American war in Việt Nam. His poetry has appeared in the American Literary Review, Consequence, Folio, Hiram Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, and Pedestal among others. He has published three collections: Persona and Shadow (Flutter Press, 2015), Absolution (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2018) and The Latitude of a Mercy (New York Quarterly Books, 2021).
Elegy for Nguyễn Quảng Đào
KIA near Tchepone, Laos 1971 February’s tired handcloses around the lilies.The night air like silk,streams of still waterhold the rotation of starsin your eyes. You arefeather, black wingabove the wounds,above the stripped brownmountains and treesthat wave their...