Voices from the fringes: Close to the whistling ground

Today’s entry for National Poetry Month is by genderqueer Chinese American poet and activist Ching-in Chen. Chen is currently an assistant professor of interdisciplinary arts at UW Bothell. Their focus is on under-examined lives in communities outside the dominant culture in the US, and I love their approach to making connections across those communities.

The Chen poem I keep coming back to is “South in Hundreds”. I’ve sorted out two narrative lines, but there may be more. It was inspired by the journey they took when moving from Houston to Seattle.

“South in Hundreds”

                 Missing one hundred.

for many leagues, i slept under
surface. couldn’t learn enough
to stay, couldn’t hurt along
midriff, scrum and scrub. see myself
rushing into tomorrow’s wet
world. thin trees almost ferns with quiet mouth
desire. took to cold high plain, only wind and a murdered boy.

started running at the first sign
of breath but there’s only
three yesterday heads speak in these fields.
so much to circle. always asking
to let me repair small chord between us.
you started lagging each step, dragging
the water, stirring up dirt. he still
refuses all nourishment, says everything bad.

an odd man rushes past, asking if
near swamp, still looking for signs
we’ve seen two girls on horseback.
not tired, he says, refusing to go to sleep.
we’ve seen very little all day, close to the whistling ground.
in this family, we don’t count sheep because we eat them.
we shake our heads no
under black light, we’re all deep stream, counting down cows.

as the man points to the tracks, they couldn’t have gone far.
         Still fresh, still fresh.