05-13-2019
Victoria Chang
BARBIE CHANG’S TEARS
Barbie Chang’s tears are the lights of
the city that go off on
off on Mr. Darcy walks around the city
but Barbie Chang can’t
follow him she can’t promote herself
if she had legs she would
stop begging if she had hands she would
stop her own wedding
the city has no extra bedding it is not
ready yet the maids are
still making beds Barbie Chang is still
looking for small openings
there are always storms long arms drinks
with pink umbrellas
because they know she is confused like a
sea horse light avoids her
town on the map B2 C4 she wants to
be used she doesn’t
want to be with you or you it is morning
again and she is already
mourning the men the night men who
never fight who never
write back she prefers to sleep on her
back so she can see the
eyes of her attackers in the morning
a bed with questions
with her depression on each side two
small holes from knees
BARBIE CHANG WAITS
Barbie Chang waits for Mr. Darcy to
reappear he is her
hound he hunts her every 43 days
Barbie Chang has
eaten with 129 forks since then 86
bowls of rice she still
has not achieved fame it still rains
every day in her brain
she still falls asleep in clubs playing
techno music
her head receives the beat her head
is a music stand
the conductor taps it with a lightning rod
her brain metals all
night it materials into Mr. Darcy they
hold hands into the room
two fools who think this will last
they will eventually
be the past too she bites his neck like
a flea but he doesn’t
swat her off there is no sweat because
the scene is not real she
has been here before on the other twin
bed twining another body
but always thinking of Mr. Darcy she
always wakes in the same
place the same room outside could be India
could be a windy hallway of
a hotel room with carpet worn from
heavy pets at 20 she
bought $40 nail clippers full
of hope now she clips
twenty little fingers and twenty little
toes her daughter wants
to grow her hair out when it is finally
long she will be gone
THEN BARBIE CHANG
Then Barbie Chang and Mr. Darcy
are in the backseat
of a car kissing not the light kind
but one where their
hands are on each other’s cheeks
holding each other’s
heads as if they will fall off why does
so much love come at
the beginning then disappear then
once again at the
moment before death why can’t the
same kind exist in between in
the breaths in the afternoon
in the sitting room
little girls dress like princesses one pink
one blue one yellow they
wear plastic heels because they still think
they will never fall
-From Barbie Chang, Copper Canyon, 2017, selected by POW Spring 2019 Guest Editor, Vandana Khanna
Prompt: As in Victoria Chang's poems, take two figures from pop culture (a Decepticon and Sherlock Holmes; Grendel and Nicole Kidman; Nat King Cole and _____; you get the idea) and see what happens when the two interact. Have fun with this, and, as some images and scenes and metaphors emerge, start thinking about what these two figures and how they interact say about you, our time, our culture. Enjoy!
Bio: VICTORIA CHANG new book of poetry, OBIT, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in April 2020. Her most recent book, Barbie Chang was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017. The Boss (McSweeney’s) won a PEN Center USA Literary Award and a California Book Award. Her other books are Salvinia Molesta and Circle. She also edited an anthology, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. Her poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, POETRY, Believer, New England Review, VQR, The Nation, New Republic, Tinhouse, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship, a Poetry Society of America Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, a Pushcart, and many other awards. She is a contributing editor of the literary journal, Copper Nickel and a poetry editor at Tupelo Quarterly. Her children’s picture book Is Mommy? (Simon & Schuster), was illustrated by Caldecott winner, Marla Frazee and was named a NYTNotable Book. Her middle grade verse novel, Love Love was recently accepted for publication. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and her weiner dogs, Mustard and Ketchup. She works with a team to run Antioch University’s MFA Program, as well co-coordinates the Idyllwild Writers Week. She also serves on the National Book Critics Circle Board. She graduated from the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford (MBA), and Warren Wilson (MFA).
