Ocean, don’t be afraid. / The end of the road is so far ahead / it is already behind us.
-- Speaker (Vuong) (Lines 1-3)

Importance: These lines introduce “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” and establish the subject to whom the poem is addressed in third-person (“Ocean”) and one of the main perspectives in the poem through use of the first-person plural “us." In addition to setting up the polyphony of perspectives, these lines also establish the calm, soothing and comforting tone of the poem, as Vuong says to himself “don’t be afraid.” One of the poem’s main ideas of acknowledging one’s past but also not letting it completely define oneself is also represented by the circularity of the “road,” how the limitation of the road’s “end … is so far ahead” that it ends up no longer being an obstacle that holds Vuong back: “it is already behind us.”

Your father is...
-- Speaker (Vuong) (Lines 4-8)