My Poem Asks to Be Read Right to Left
An opening to a story should be When the will
unremarkable. of one’s willingness to work
supersedes
After my essay alphabetical
was stretched by order. When the
the love doctor, will of
I resumed a hermetic lifestyle. To manage a local spirit
my interrupts your martyrdom. A
time, I distributed water crystals medium becomes a
and Kirkland medium
bottles on the highway. As because they can’t avoid
a side character, I have only the fact of their
desired to calling.
seize
agency They assume mortality.
with little to They eat average meals.
no knowledge. They excommunicate
journalists. A troupe
And you wished of exorcists
that for me. exudes brilliance. Sure,
let’s say last
Even listening is night I was
useless. I have nothing to say. an anthurium
I don’t think a man can full of wonder.
understand petty ,
nor can he Dreaming
recognize the mercy on the third day. The
inherent in end of
his own killing. fragrance, renewing stomps.
Copyright © 2023 by Catherine Chen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 20, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Sometimes I write as a Chinese heritage speaker and edit as an English speaker, and vice versa. When I attempt this triangulated practice, all writing becomes refracted through my bilingual lexicon of references, translations, myths, and incomplete memories. While writing against (about) the feeling of loss, which is coerced by state violence and reinforced through generational struggle, I began to think about the last time I sat in my grandmother’s garden.”
—Catherine Chen
Catherine Chen
