#how dare you make me choose between Chen Chen poems?!?!?

[ciarareads]

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Text #1

[all caps] Summer was forever [end all caps]

Time dripped from the faucet like a magician's botched trick. // I did not want to applaud it. I stood to one side & thought, // What it's time for is a garden. Or a croissant factory. What kind // of work do I need to be doing? My parents said: Doctor, // married to lawyer. The faucet said: Drip, drop, // your life sucks. 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. Our work would be simple. Our kissing would rhyme // with cardiac arrest. Birds would overthrow the cathedral towers. // I would have a magician's hair, full of sleeves & saws, // unashamed to tell the whole town our first date was // in a leaky faucet factory. How we fell in love during jumps // on his tragic uncle's trampoline. We fell in love in midair.

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Text #2

[bolded] I'm not a religious person but [end bolded]

[all caps] by Chen Chen [end all caps]

God sent an angel. One of his least qualified, though. Fluent only in // Lemme get back to you. The angel sounded like me, early twenties, // unpaid interning. Proficient in fetching coffee, sending super // vague emails. It got so bad God personally had to speak to me. // This was annoying because I'm not a religious person. I thought // I'd made this clear to God by reading Harry Potter & not attending // church except for gay weddings. God did not listen to me. God is // not a good listener. I said Stop it please, I'lI give you wedding cake, // money, candy, marijuana. Go talk to married people, politicians, // children, reality TV stars. I'll even set up a booth for you, // then everyone who wants to talk to you can do so // without the stuffy house of worship, the stuffier middlemen, // & the football blimps that accidentally intercept prayers // on their way to heaven. I'll keep the booth decorations simple // but attractive: stickers of angels 8 cats, because I'm not religious // but didn't people worship cats? Thing is, God couldn't take a hint. // My doctor said to eat an apple every day. My best friend said to stop // sleeping with guys with messiah complexes. My mother said she is // pretty sure she had sex with my father so I can't be some new // Asian Jesus. I tried to enrage God by saying things like When I asked // my mother about you, she was in the middle of making dinner // so she just said Too busy. I tried to confuse God by saying I am // a made-up dinosaur & a real dinosaur & who knows maybe // I love you, but then God ended up relating to me. God said I am // a good dinosaur but also sort of evil & sometimes loving no one. // It rained & we stayed inside. Played a few rounds of backgammon. // We used our indoor voices. It got so quiet I asked God // about the afterlife. Its existence, human continued existence. // He said Oh. That. 'Then sent his angel again. Who said Ummmmmmm. // I never heard from God or his rookie angel after that. I miss them. // Like creatures I made up or found in a book, then got to know a bit.

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