swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

waiting
Leigh Doughty

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Outside my window there’s an old man
with a withered face selling fruits from a cart
in the shade beneath a canopy tree.
Avoiding the Vietnamese sun,
his speaker blares out
to every ear upon the street.

Today, nobody wants to buy any fruit
yet he remains near my window.
Hunched over his cart
in the searing heat;
waiting for the sale
that never seems to come.

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Leigh Doughty is a writer and language tutor based in HCMC, Vietnam. His work can be found in the VNexpress, The Good Men Project, and The Meridian. When he isn’t writing he can be found with a book in a comfortable chair.