Chen Chen | & then a student stands up, says, Are you serious?

Author photo by Scott Tsuchitani

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the GLCA New Writers Award, the Texas Book Award for Poetry, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. Bloodaxe Books will publish the UK edition in 2019. Chen's work appears in many publications, including Poem-a-Day and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He has taught at Syracuse University and Texas Tech University; currently he is the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University. He co-founded and co-runs the journal, Underblong. He lives with his partner and their pug dog, Mr. Rupert Giles.

Chen Chen's Website

Chen Chen on Twitter

Underblong

Also by Chen Chen: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities Kissing the Sphinx Set the Garden on Fire

November 6, 2018
Poets Resist
2018 Midterm Elections
Special Feature

Chen Chen

& then a student stands up, says, Are you serious?

to the student who’s still standing, who’s just finished presenting what sounded like a Sahara-dry book report — until the last sentence, Guns are not the problem, which she said like an eager teacher, like she was, is, in fact, at the front of the classroom. & then, the classmate. Her Are you serious? with a great snort of a laugh that means, I am serious, I am standing. & I stand up, from a chair in the back. & everyone goes silent, even the student who taps, always taps his foot against his backpack on the floor, he stops, while I start looking to the birds outside our window, wishing they would beak right through, bird me away. Me, the brilliant one who decided current events, sure, guns, yes, my students finally want to talk, let them. Guns are not the problem? How are they not? & my feet want to stomp in agreement. My legs want to stand with this student, her questions, not with the one who began her presentation, Gun ownership is a basic American right, an important part of what makes our society free. & despite the impressive lack of intonation, my chest wondered if she owned a gun, if she ever carried in class, if I would notice, if she noticed during her five minutes how I was trying not to be angry with her five minutes — my trying, my face, she must’ve seen. Still she stood. We are standing. & my chest tries to laugh a laugh that means, This is serious, this is the class.

< Previous (Stephen S. Mills)Next (Bailey Cohen) >