I knitted the speech over and over.
Lines unraveled, and words were thrown away,
But still nothing could convey red and white.

Lines unraveled, and words were thrown away
As the point on the axis rushed forward,
But the speech was still made of rigid stones.

As the point on the axis rushed forward,
The drum in my brain and heart raced,
But still nothing could convey red and white.

The drum in my brain and heart raced.
I knitted the speech over and over,
But the speech was still made of rigid stones.

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Duc Van Khanh Tran is currently a Computer Science Ph.D. student at National University of Singapore. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Linguistics and has started using mathematical poetry forms to write poems since senior year in college. He writes poems in English and Mandarin Chinese, with poems published or forthcoming in Yīn Literary, Juste Milieu Zine, 《雨林诗刊》etc. He can be found on Instagram @duc_v.k._tran, and updates on his poems can be found on duc-van-khanh-tran-poetry.carrd.co.