My Poem Asks to Be Read Right to Left

An opening to a story should be                                             When the will
unremarkable.                    of one’s willingness to work
supersedes 
After my essay                                                alphabetical
was stretched              by                                        order. When the
the love doctor,                                                           will of
I resumed a hermetic lifestyle. To manage                                               a local spirit
my               interrupts your martyrdom. A
time, I distributed water crystals                                  medium becomes a
and Kirkland                                                      medium
bottles on the highway. As                         because they can’t avoid
a side character, I have only                                         the fact of their
desired to                                                        calling.
seize                                                                     
agency                          They assume mortality.
with little to                         They eat average meals.
no knowledge.                             They excommunicate
journalists. A troupe
And you wished                                                of exorcists
that for me.                          exudes brilliance. Sure,
let’s say last
Even listening is                                                 night I was
useless. I have nothing to say.                                           an anthurium
I don’t think a man can                                          full of wonder.
understand petty                    ,                                                                     
nor                   can he                                                  Dreaming
 recognize the mercy                              on the third day. The
inherent in                                                         end of
his own killing.                fragrance, renewing stomps.

Copyright © 2023 by Catherine Chen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 20, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“Sometimes I write as a Chinese heritage speaker and edit as an English speaker, and vice versa. When I attempt this triangulated practice, all writing becomes refracted through my bilingual lexicon of references, translations, myths, and incomplete memories. While writing against (about) the feeling of loss, which is coerced by state violence and reinforced through generational struggle, I began to think about the last time I sat in my grandmother’s garden.”
—Catherine Chen