lovingly, mom flips
over the pot, clams
shrink brown, pork
greasing saturates
in many waves of anger

her shoulder, half
an arm away, in a rhythm
of refusal, doors shut loud
rolling, dragging, drying

she smiles when I
distress her distress

she shrieks when I
betray her betrayal

she crumbles when
she also spills, grows,

overflows, wine in hand,
blushing, jumpy, heart-

wrecking naivety, says to
me, oil in air:

your dad is just a kid

your dad is just a kid,
who eats, shits, fucks
who goes to the movies
who takes off his cum-stained pants
who writes love poems after he disappoints

who swears, hides, dreams
of heroic European curls
sweats, lands, skins
alive women’s weary,
short! teenage longings

lovingly, mom wishes his
death. 28 years non-stop
nurture, she comes out
of the kitchen and changes
into Mikey mouse jumpsuit
with a knife sharpened in

kid’s fat
a lover’s teeth

---

Yuyi Chen is from Sichuan, China. They are now in a PhD program in anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Their poems are published or forthcoming in Nat. Brut, antiphony, Landfill, and Pile Press. Their chapbook EROTIC CONTINENT is forthcoming in 2025 from DISCOUNT GUILLOTINE. ig: @echochochoro