Ode
You could say the sea to me
& I would be all
only
all synonyms
for “shine.”
Like “dazzle.”
Or “desire.” Or “an unfinished,
unfinishable
evening of hijinks
from a past
life as a pebble.”
Just the sea.
& you
saying it.
Me, My Sadness, & My Mango Smoothie
You, your melancholy, & your Seinfeld
marathon. Me, my meh, & my half-eaten lemon
macaron. You, your Saturn return, & your fuzzy lemon
sweater. Me, my blizzard of
poo, my Pompeii of blergh, my mired
in me, my oh fuck this, my
fuck, my unpleased
as unpunch, my shit pit piss abyss, my down
to the last sip of my mango smoothie & why isn’t it
helping one bit?
You, your seeing.
You, your sighing with, holding
me, my crashing, crashed, & our
quarter-finished documentary
about penguin myths
& facts. Us, our mouths going aww, minds going
awe. Us, our popcorn breaths. Us,
the bad days, good cries. Us, the bad days,
good drinks. Us, the very bad days
where we’re both feeling nothing
but badder. & during our baddest, our worstest,
our ugliest-ugh-est?
Still us.
Thank you.
Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions next fall. His first book, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was long-listed for the National Book Award, among other honors.
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