Chen Chen
photo credit: Anna Jekel
Chen Chen’s poems are abundant, brimming over with joy, love, emotion, and wordplay. Often playful, his poetry invites the reader to witness the world in its wonder alongside him, and in doing so, experience an expansive range of tender feelings. I’ve admired Chen’s work for years and am thrilled that we are sharing two of his poems in our inaugural poetry issue. The speaker brings together aural and physical pleasure in "Queer Nightlife." “Quintessence: For Recreational Purposes” is part of a series of meditations in quintets, in this case featuring a pair of briefs. These poems are sexy and joyful and celebrate intimacy in beautiful ways.
-Michael
Queer Nightlife
In the dream of fondue & slutty Spider-Men,
I still have needs.
For instance, I need to get high
on the sound of words, which upon reflection is my eternal wish
& without which I would eventually,
thoroughly wither.
I mean, a big web
of a foursome is good, a big pot of cheese
is god. But oh,
but ooh all the truly filthy ultra melty pleasures
of the linguistic. & specifically, the verbal, the aural,
the oral. Consonants & wow,
vowels & commingling. I need more
words, wetter sentences. Yet crispier, too. Dipped in some feral
batter? Hmm, this
spent Spidey’s pillow talk is not
lyric whooshing enough. & this leftover Gruyère’s
gossip is chatty sigh sigh
when I’m looking for cosmic conversational splendor.
Even in dream,
all of these utterances are not quite, you know, starry
plinking to the pink starriest degree.
But. The night is
still night. So come on,
next speaker, new scene. Come
make me even a consonant, a resonance, one unbecoming tingling
more alive.
Quintessence: For Recreational Purposes
The briefs through which
he samples my pre
ripple with peaches, so many
(cartoonishly plump)
pinknesses that can’t help
but sway
to the summery track of my whimpery
squirms, & yep, it’s firm
yet downright festive, too, my dick,
it’s also dancing,
wait, swimming,
no, swim-prancing, nope,
it’s romp-roar-splashing—
under this (increasingly wet) sea
of cheeks.
Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), both published by BOA Editions. His latest chapbook is Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. He lives in Rochester, NY and teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College, Stonecoast, and Antioch.
Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and check out more of his work here.