Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The American Poetry Review

    FIVE POEMS

    Sep 01, 2022 4 minutes
    VICTORIA CHANG

    Gratitude, 2001

    The red strip is not a tongue or fire. I try to imagine it without

    the white strip above it. Or the green blocks. What is the red strip without
    anything else? Agnes said suffering is necessary for freedom from suffering. Maybe
    the yellow strips are suffering. See how far away they are? Always distant but
    always there. Or maybe they are language, in how we can

    still see the yellow on the periphery when we look at the red in the middle. I
    want to pull the yellow closer but maybe I

    should push it away. What am I outside ofAgnes spoke of—standing in an auditorium without a microphone or anaudience, at a podium reading wind. And where the skin that has beenwound tightly around me my whole life, is also the thing that I’ve been

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The American Poetry Review

    The American Poetry Review4 min read
    FOUR POEMS from Jackalopes, Inc.
    Supposedly there was this guy Cornellwho wanted to vindicate nostalgiaas a feeling and hammered togethersmall boxes in which he’d place aluminumflowers magazine clippingsand pics of girls in ballerina posesplus odd trinkets he’d foundon the street th
    The American Poetry Review3 min read
    Ways To Describe An Asteroid
    Like a thousand-pound Pembroke Welsh Corgiheavy as four baby elephants. The sizeof a small car; or the size of a bridge. As big as a bus, or the size of a house. As bigas 90 elephants. The size of an Olympicswimming pool, with the width of an airfiel
    The American Poetry Review4 min read
    Smother
    ≈ The smoke never appears in family pictures. The smoke got up this morning and ran a marathon. She came in first inher age group without trying. The smoke’s children are fine, just where they should be on the growthchart. She lets their father cut t

    Related Books & Audiobooks