MICHAEL CHANG (they/them) is the author of many collections of poetry, including SYNTHETIC JUNGLE (Northwestern University Press, 2023) & EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS (GreenTower Press, 2024). They edit poetry at Fence.
LUCKY BLUE SMITH
该死的温柔
怎么还不爱
Love ! why the hell not !
Cute, racially-ambiguous boy wants me to move to California
He sends out definitive love vibrations, they’re unmistakable
I say nice r u a Jenner !
I have respectable (rich) friends, impeccable followers, remarkable insight
San Francisco is gnarly & full of Chinese
I lock myself in the room w/ the animals & forget I did that
I write a movie where the principal character spends all their time searching for a killer
In the final scenes it is revealed that the character themselves did the deed, offed their lover
I’ll cast in the titular role the love child of Francis O’Hara & Sylvia Plath
I am his most beloved & he has killed me
Yes, I know him, the one responsible for at least 80% of New York City’s broken hearts
They are a hamburger I like very much
When I think of him I can feel the vessels swimming in my eyes
Ur licking my delicate opening, the Teresa Teng of poetry
It’s a thin line between resentment & desire
Are u okay letting me think u hate me (“I hated myself for some time for the things that I said”)
If I tell u Rooney Mara is my dead step-sister, is that giving too much away
Forgive me, sharp shoulders lean body :
Will I be banished henceforth :
COMME DES GARÇONS
here’s what’s happened since u were last on linkedin
ur dirty sayonara
this lifestyle yanked away from me
ludwig kim jones fav boi he put his fats on it
o’hara considering the muse as demon lover
plath looking into the eyes of demon lover
this jack of hearts
always drinking too much
in the middle of a kiss
florida man
wasted like confetti
b mine
please confirm
i’m hooked in a bad way
we’ll put osiris on the case
don’t eat stuff off the sidewalk
i promise u come first
like a lover like a song
it starts & ends w/ u
don’t b afraid if nobody loves u
i’ve been trying to tell u
one day at a time
IMAGINED OCEANS
鱼帮水·水帮鱼
we help each other
speak aussie down under
peppa pig not for eating
想你想得好孤寂
lonely, vulnerable to every influence
fitzgerald claimed no second acts
YOLO
leopard’s mouth dry, cold inside
pipe down, show me ur pipe game
rush to prove how little i matter
i’ve always been my own person but i want to be defined by u
i said i was singular
u thought i said single
for u
i can always be single
slim bullfighters touching our bare shoulders
a young colin powell before his big speech
guernica covered up
modest in perfect contempt
bleary-eyed, moody
u break my reverie
cavalcade of everything else
i think range is important
what are two things u can’t change?
the past & other ppl
good to remember
but what’s life w/o fantasy ???
rump of a steer
a little mercy
almost enough
& then what ???
慢走不送 C U NEXT TUESDAY
date worked out, driving luke evans back into the closet
i will schedule a bilateral meeting w/ musical accompaniment
spicer luv landis, date movie “pianist” (it’s unrequited)
i was raised by a family of religious cheerleaders
we host meet-&-greets at the great wall restaurant
i show up trashed & write beautiful poems abt the lockdown
ask the stone lions if mad mex has a wait
some poems have iconic wordplay & create tension that way
other poems have basic, pedestrian language & r more abt vibes
in any case, predictable white guy who luvs hip-hop
we must build more prisons to expand jailhouse literacy
skin flashing, the cabana boys rush to collect wayward umbrellas
to make it up to u i let u fuck me into a vegetable
save ur strength! don’t show us who u really r!
ATONEMENT
at ZAC EFRON’s beach house
TRUSSARDI-branded soaps
FORTUNE FEIMSTER as SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS
A multi-hyphenate
CAPULET bromance
an intimate club w/ requisite gang-signs
i detect your silence
you you practiced
personification of ALLURE
fresh face pummeled red & teal
according to that distant sheepdog narcissa
saliva syrupy like PEET’S coffee
FENDI sable coat hurriedly hung
stashed under the stairs
america’s premier soft boi
the lab where he was born