where??
by Marina Jinghang Chen
are they lost in the sheets from a tumultuous rest
are they fallen out the shut glass
are they trapped in the tv playing psychedelic sleeping beauty on static repeat
are they starring in bird films
are they waiting in my bra shoes socks lipids
are they in ohio leeching corn soil growing two cup sizes and green
are they in atlantis
are they beneath the underwater tomb
are they dripping leering at men out of a sea of coke foam american venus
are they hooded fisting the yakuza
are they fighting my human right to get used to driving on the wrong side
are they only drinking coffee for breakfast hooded lids moonstone eye
are they sewn into the pockets of a flank steak ass
are they wandering the red midwest chimneys unlost
are they buying me a harley
are they white wall waiting until the last minute
are they finding their soprano voice again
are they getting stallions pregnant
are they beneath open commercially refrigerated sky learning the tattoo art
are they letting snow peaks make them feel small
are they clinging to the deep sea bellies of tankers
are they dyeing the waves grey
are they alternatively in the mediterranean
are they shooting naked into the mouth of a golden grilled shark
are they the sharks themselves wearing baseball caps
are they at cheerleader auditions hoping lonesome sells
are they in alpine TX
are they stealing the limelight at a sixty-seventh birthday party
are they glinting beneath glinting iridescent falls glinting
are they somewhere between noon and one-o-clock sweat knocking
are they locked levis and skin but worse empty space
are they shutting a slick black trunk on my worst enemies on a red-glow road
are they buying me a tesla
are they breaking up breaking my peace
are they eating my heart with steak sauce to make my chest cavity more spacious
are they setting my alarm clock then crawling into my pillow
are they fucking up US bluetooth no more ac/dc
are they in the mirror playing sharpie surgeon
are they tucked into the bust of my future fifties wedding dress
are they losing their virginity to the spotify eighties hard rock album
are they at the cinema switching each pixel to monochrome
are they in alice who’s in wonderland swimming through her veins
are they putting hammer to marble
are they the mermaids in my dead flower lagoon
are they in vegas
are they stealing my routines oh amateur night at the strip club
are they in the rhine
are they long hair long nipples streaming in the motherfuckin rhine
are they sipping visas from seltzer seas
are they tinkerbell in a cologne bottle on one crumb a day
are they strobe lighting candy canes
are they mercury flambé
are they crossing the river that great silver road of bodies the styx
This poem is a selection from Chen's suite of poems Dreams About Blood.