#chen chen

lifeinpoetry

I wish I could peel
all my sadness in one long strip off my skin
& toss it in a bucket. No one would have to carry it.
It would just sit there & be punished.
It would just sit there & think about everything it’s done.

— Chen Chen, from “Elegy for My Sadness,“ published in Breakwater Review

whalesfallmoved

“Aren’t all great love stories, at their core, great mistakes?”

— Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities