Page 2

This page reads as a private dedication, preserving two names at the front of the manuscript.

Its importance is documentary and personal rather than poetic. It gives the collection an immediate human address.

A dedication, just two names with a dash between them: 'Vinh Troung' and 'Thao Pham.' No verse, no explanation - the page offers two Vietnamese names as the book's only preface, a private debt set down plainly before the first poem arrives.