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By Duy Doan

The man I pulled tonight
carried a load of books.


When I felt him watching
me uphill, I grimaced.


He gave me lunar
cakes the size


of two camel humps.
When I answered him,


I smiled to his face.
He wore the moonlight


in his specs. Pant
seams clean as the embroidery


work of his book covers.
One cannot grow rich


without a bit of cleverness.
Should I have shown


him the secret of my deft
touch? The Circling Moon,


the Graceful Swan? How East
Wind beats West Wind


if other two winds say so?
Snow falls on cedars.


Source: Poetry (September 2017)

  • Activities
  • Arts & Sciences
  • Love

Poet Bio

Duy Doan
Duy Doan is the author of We Play a Game, winner of the 2017 Yale Series of Younger Poets. His work has appeared in Poetry, Slate, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. A Kundiman fellow, he received an MFA in poetry from Boston University, where he serves as director of the Favorite Poem Project. See More By This Poet

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