"Dear P." by Victoria Chang

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 29, 2017   Dear P.   Victoria Chang

Someone will        love you     many will      love you         many will brother you   some of these loves will        bother you   some   will      leave you one might        haunt   you      hunt you in your sleep        make you       weep the tearless kind of weep the         kind of weep   that drowns your     organs     slowly    there are little oars  in your body       little boats   grab onto them and row and        row someone will tell you      no       but you won't   know he is    right until you have   already        wrung your   own heart dry    your hands dripping knives    until you have    already   reached your hands into       his        body and put them through his        heart     love is the only thing that       is not    an       argument            Copyright © 2017 Victoria Chang. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "This poem is a part of a series of epistolary poems that are in my forthcoming book, Barbie Chang. I wrote these to my children, knowing that despite the wisdom that comes with my own aging, they will still have to make all the same mistakes (more or less) that I have made, which is a scary thought." —Victoria Chang   Victoria Chang is the author of Barbie Chang, forthcoming in November 2017 from Copper Canyon Press. She teaches at Chapman University and the Orange County School of the Arts and lives in Southern California.   Poetry by Chang   Barbie Chang (Copper Canyon Press, 2017)  "it was a dream" by Lucille Clifton "Names" by Fady Joudah "A Bedtime Story" by Clay Matthews Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038