Three Poems
Collector
*
the first one is a coincidence
the first one in a collection is not
having crossed the threshold
the practice commits
(it seems) it only
makes sense
*
the first encounter
being a singularity
an impulsion
untimely
a word
of caution
a river that cannot be
crossed twice
has stones all over its banks
*
I weigh stones
in palm
like all texts
my palm convinces
to throw the cold
stones back
to the river
until the next virtue
finds its route
back to the palm
with damning intentions
holding instants
& long
long evaporates
a plea
the palm is
for the mercy
of intents please
I throw
the cold stones away again
*
in front of the court
I admit
I collect
other people’s pain
in front of the mirror
I admit
I collect
other people’s pain
in front of the mountains
I admit
I collect
other people’s pain
in front of you I press
the illusory wounds
I admit
*
I collect
other people
the warm oval
the sharp drone
the habitual
human action
fail vail
Speculative fiction #1
-
I saw the deer
Among many deers alive
Trees are
Rabbit seconds
Ruby speed; tech
Knee at auto dawn
Arrival is an
Ambush unenviable
All anus labored
A sloth
Cars eventual
-
A table grows sons
Mothers, unclaimed
Daughter cry over
Sugar in air; sugar
Nose - bless you
Crystal, mine kin
Not, job me
A swarm, swam,
Am
-
Miss American, missing
A spleen
Rather a warm
Day it is
Landlord
my landlord said: let there be love
so was love made, snitched
by an ark of comrades
hating life, feet in boiler
eating fecund, tail deep
in teeth, while fire caves
a sun purple, pointing
the rumble of daylight fright
the waste of it all,
the dawn cedes,
that’s when a lover comes -
as my landlord allows -
a rat or raccoon, their face
adjacent to a dancing
heart in dark, mooning
buddha’s eye. slasher
or prophecies, in cruelty
we depend on lamb -
like your arm, fragility is
in this house the only
thing i possess. so said
the land, the lord, the lover
governs this law - in this house
like hell
let there be love.
∩
Yuyi Chen (they/them) is from Sichuan, China. They are now in a PhD program in anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. They are the author of the chapbook EROTIC CONTINENT (Discount Guillotine, 2025) and their poems are published or forthcoming in Nat. Brut, αntiphony, Landfill, and Pile Press. They go by Echo.