diagram a ghost
in January, I was a girl
not a city
streetless and star remote
friends whistle me up
in my wolf cap
saw me and my ceiling
for rescue
I whittle down my cheekbones
we joyride
flash and cried I couldn’t
be a boy that heard the news
the next daylight
lay swollen
nameless feet march up
demand my name
be crunched in each mouth
remorseful bite
full of fist
From recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017) by Ching-In Chen. Copyright © 2017 Ching-In Chen. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Ching-In Chen
Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American writer, community organizer, and teacher. They are the author of recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017) and The Heart’s Traffic (Arktoi/Red Hen Press, 2009).
A Kundiman and Lambda Fellow, they have also been awarded residencies and fellowships from Callaloo, The Watering Hole, Can Serrat, Jack Straw Cultural Center, the Millay Colony for the Arts, Imagining America, EmergeNYC, the Intercultural Leadership Institute, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.