THE TEACHER’S DAUGHTER

(Vo Thi Nhu Mai, Australia)

since I was not brought there by chance

but chose the road her footsteps made for me

I lifted chalk as if it were a vow

spoken between the past and what will be

her consistent strength still remains in my hands

something took me years to understand

If I stand now, the place her shadow fell

it is not her shadow, but a kind of light

that stays in the corners of each room

in the desks that are filled with curiosity and youth

in every mind that asks to be believed

the same thirst of knowledge that she tried to spread

fortune did not divide our worlds apart

though hers was framed by hometown and open air

and mine by screens that hum with distant lives

still, something human that is quite the same

the need to be seen without a doubt

to hear a voice say, you are more than this

though I could turn away and choose differently

I follow her career, her mission of education

but from a knowing deeper than what I understand

that love can live in the work we keep on daily

and somewhere in each word I give away

her life continues, powerfully through the passion of mine

Võ Thị Như Mai is a Vietnamese poet, translator, editor, critic, and Senior Teacher based in Perth, Western Australia, whose work spans more than two decades of bilingual writing and cultural advocacy. She is the author of five poetry collections and three children’s books published in Vietnam and Australia and has led over ten internationally published bilingual translation projects introducing Vietnamese poets to global audiences. Her writing explores themes of belonging, memory, heritage, and the quiet beauty of everyday life, blending Vietnamese imagery with a universal emotional resonance. An active member of the HCM Writers Association and the Perth Poetry Club, she is also a committed supporter of emerging writers and cross-cultural literary exchange. In 2025, she was honoured in Spain as one of the Top One Hundred Most Influential Literary Figures and received two Awards of Commendation from the Vietnamese Consulate General in Australia and the Foreign Affairs in Vietnam for her outstanding contribution to promoting Vietnamese culture and language abroad.