Chasm by Hieu Minh Nguyen (grades 10+)

Hieu Minh Nguyen identifies as a queer, Vietnamese American who practices both performance and poetry. He has two collections of poetry: 2014's This Way to the Sugar and 2018's Not Here. The poem included here, "Chasm", reckons with one of the the many unintended social and interpersonal consequences and complexities of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and its direct effect on the speaker's family.