Coterie

By Michelle Chen

I have never known a person who has died & I’ve been trying
to do better. Egypt’s finest hiccoughs
made me a swooning dilettante
of the museum’s darling coffins,
sobbing over dropped haw flakes.

Forgive me, I’ve been busy.

I’ve been dreaming in chemistry class
& somehow an umbrella has found its way
against this blasted landscape & the rain is trickling
down the flaps of this flying squirrel & my long dark
hair begins to dry — Buckyball. . .molecule
. . . write it down . . . fullerene. Full? I am not
full, lunchtime is next period. My head droops
and jerks, eyes widening tiredly. I am as poised as death.

I hear my sentences filling up with fear.

The loveknot at the orphanage wasn’t half bad.
The only tongue I had was a stub, and that made me glad.
The pond drowned me when I stepped on a lily pad.
The eyes glitter like stage spotlights & traffic at night
The tiles undress flesh from bone, feather from dove

………………………………… (sugar stuck to my heel)

I limp
………………..casteless
……………………………………..past.

Now I said I’ve been busy lately
clicking ahead in Youtube videos
skipping flash-frames for the ignition of human voices
& bawl-worthy lyric
yesterday a friend told me her great-grandmother
watched her grandma die
& I didn’t understand but tried.

Darling, I planted your voice for you.
I spread all your dead things into the compost
& stepped back & buckyball is the most common
naturally occurring fullerene & you are so so quiet

I have never known a person who has died & I’ve been trying

to do better.

I’m sketching clear deserts in the dark.

____________________________________

Michelle Chen is a sixteen-year old poet, writer, and artist who takes inspiration for her writing from the events that occur in and around her home, New York City, though she was born in Singapore and hopes to return and visit someday. In addition to being the first-prize winner of ZO’s Teen Media Expo, she is first-prize winner of the 2015 Knopf Poetry prize and the Norm Strung Youth Writing Competition, the recipient of The Critical Junior Poet’s Award, was commended as a Foyle Young Poet of the Year, and has performed at Lincoln Center. Her work has been honored both regionally and nationally in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has appeared or will appear in Prairie Schooner, the Sharkpack Poetry Review, The Critical Pass Review, Across the Margin, Transcendence, Alexandria Quarterly, Ember, On Spec, Polyphony HS, Pif Magazine, and elsewhere.