Drunkard Boxing

by Linh Dinh

Poetry. The prose poems in Linh Dihn's DRUNKARD BOXING are worldly, visual images that induce distinct feelings that only places and things can give you. The body and movement are ever present in Dinh's work and offer random detail in ways that make perfect sense. Dinh's other books includes Blood and Soup, Fake House: Stories, American Tatts, and more. Born in Vietnam, Linh Dinh came to the United States in 1975. He has published poetry in numerous journals, including Sulfur, New American Writing, and Kenyon Review. DRUNKARD BOXING is his first collection from the Philadelphia Publishing Project, which responds to the need for national exposure for emerging writers in Philadelphia.

Genres: Poetry

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is one I liked:

t h e d e a d
--- L I N H D I N H

The nine-year-old hockey puck
Bounced from the fender of an olive truck
Now bounces a leather ball on his forehead.
The old lady who scrounged potted meat
From foreign men lying in a mortar pit
Now sells gold jewelry in Santa Barbara.
The dead are not dead but wave at pretty strangers
From their pick-up trucks on Bolsa Avenue.
They sit at formica tables smoking discount cigarettes.
Some have dyed their hair, changed their name to Bill.
But the living, some of them, like to dig up the dead,
Dress them in their native costumes, shoot them again,
Watch their bodies rise in slow motion.