The Abyss Gives Us a Pep Talk as We Continue to Fall

by Chen Chen

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Listen up. This day? Not 
secret enough. Not nearly 
September & molar tooth 
enough. Only 

a spritz of soul, one measly 
sample of interior from the Macy’s
of the soul’s
store counter. 

Even a microbe’s 
toe would agree. Who wouldn’t 

crave more 
of less knowing, less 
  kneeling at 
the altar of sayable 
behavior, un-
uncouth syllables? 

Grow out 
your mossy, nasty, 
inmost
mouths—the ones 

that greenly shout
nothing       that can be said.

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Chen Chen’s second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is a best book of 2022 according to the Boston Globe, Electric Lit, NPR, and others. It has also been named a 2023 Notable Book by the American Library Association. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, was long-listed for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He was the 2018-2022 Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University and currently teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.