Ice

For the fifth day in a row
the foreigner went to a small restaurant
near his home in Hanoi
He spoke with the same waitress
who had served him all week
and asked for the same thing he had ordered
the previous four days
Then he sat down at a table

 The waitress,
a young girl fresh from the countryside,
soon brought the food, a glass and a warm can of Coke,
but this time
she forgot the ice

Đá
That was the Vietnamese word for ice,
not to be confused with đa (banyan tree),
đả (hit),
đà (beam)
or đã (already),
and the foreigner knew this word,
knew how to pronounce it properly,
so he asked the girl for ice
and she replied
with a lack of comprehension

The foreigner saw a glass of iced tea
on a nearby table,
so he took a clean chopstick,
walked over to the other table with the girl
and with the chopstick pointed to an ice cube and said,
Đá

Trà đá?

Không
Không trà đá
Đá

Trà đá?

 Không
Không trà đá
Đá

Trà đá?

Không
Không trà đá
Đá

Iced tea?
The girl repeated several times

No,
not iced tea
Ice,
the foreigner replied

He then resigned himself
to the idea that he would not be getting
any ice that evening
and returned to his table

A minute later the girl brought him
a glass of iced tea

The foreigner took an ice cube
out of the glass,
held it in one hand
and with the other pointed to it and said,
Đa

The girl appeared not to understand,
so a local guy who was sitting at a nearby table
said loudy in Vietnamese,
He wants ice

The girl finally understood,
took away the iced tea
and came back
with a glass of ice