American Syntax
............The teacher straightbacked,
faced me off, her eyes.
............My face in the cleave of
her shoulder, my bones
sitting high my cheek.
............The word proper
arrives in the hall...The order
of things, rolling
neat into pine drawers, dead-
clean. Squeezed juice of greedy
sponge.
............Her teeth not match.
One chipped...The corner lifted,
peeking a window, furtive.
............The other, pearl, round
and perfect, looming above my
arched head...About to bite.
-Ching-In Chen
Used by permission.
Photo by: Sarah Grant
Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press) and co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities (South End Press). She is a Kundiman, Macondo and Lambda Fellow and has worked in the San Francisco, Oakland, Riverside and Boston Asian American communities. Ching-In currently lives in Milwaukee and is involved in union organizing and direct action against the draconian proposals of Governor Scott Walker.
Chen was part of the group reading 7 & 7: 7 Poets Celebrate Kundiman's 7th Year at Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness 2010.
Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the Week widely. We just ask you to include all of the information in this email, including this request. Thanks!
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