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Chen Chen Biography

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“My mother was in the hospital & I didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father to be it. You always forget something, she said. even when I do the list for you. Even then.”

Mother Family Trust Hospital

Author:Chen Chen

“I wish I could write an elegy for my sadness because it has suddenly died.”

Author:Chen Chen

“My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend. But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday. My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend. Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital & I didn't want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale, bad plot, great wifi in the atypical café. My mother was in the hospital & she didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when I do the list for you. Even then.”

Death Suffering Loss Grief Illness Mothers Families Sons

Book:When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Source: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“Maybe the centipede in the cellar knows with its many disgusting legs why I am sad. No one else does.”

Author:Chen Chen

“If we could communicate fully, there would be no need to communicate. If we could love perfectly, there would be no need to love. If we could finish grieving, there would be no need to live. If we could touch completely, there would be no need.”

Book:Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

Source: Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

“Then even your most stubborn muscle grows weary, & sends it whirling through your bloodstream & your blood carries it, everywhere in your body at once, so there is no more moving. So you sit, on the floor of the toy store, like the end of an avalanche, each rock, tree, & small wish of you crushed, heaped. & the scream of your total defeat is the cry that brought the mountain down.”

Blood Defeat Weary

Author:Chen Chen

“Reporters & fathers call your generation “the worst.” Which really means “queer kids who could go online & learn that queer doesn’t have to mean disaster.” Or dead. Instead, queer means, splendiferously, you.”

Poetry Poem Gay Being Yourself Lgbtq Queer Being Oneself

Author:Chen Chen

“You are the ice cream sandwich connoisseur of your generation. Blessed are your floral shorteralls, your deeply pink fanny pack with travel-size lint roller just in case. Level of splendiferous in your outfit: 200.”

Poetry Fashion Poem Clothes Ice Cream Garments Outfits Ice Cream Sandwiches Fanny Packs Shorteralls

Author:Chen Chen

“But sometimes no one said anything & I saw him, the local paper boy on his route. His beanstalk frame & fragile bicycle. & I knew: we would be so terribly happy.”

Love Poetry Summer Lgbt

Book:When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Source: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I hope to one day write something as beautiful as Sailor Moon’s catchphrase, “In the name of the moon, I’ll punish you!” Though my abolitionist politics would revise that to: “In the name of the moon, let’s fight for nonpunitive forms of justice!”

Writing Justice Punishment Sailor Moon

Author:Chen Chen

“Sometimes you just want to give up. Then you remember why you live.”

Life Inspirational Pushing Though

Author:Chen Chen

“I know: in a dream, the tea could stay forever the exact right drinking temperature & I never want that. I want the debauched joy of everyday bumbles & flops”

Joy Poetry Dreams Poem Perfection Tea Imperfection

Author:Chen Chen

“You row, the growing light rearranging your voice, the rain your lunatic photographer.”

Light Voice Row

Author:Chen Chen