Friendship in the desert
It’s pronounced Sing – kuh – pee—
the medical term for a sudden loss
in consciousness caused by a drop
in blood pressure.
But when Ellpetha says it aloud
I hear sink hope.
We are in a foreign country.
We are each a foreign country,
and what I want out of life
is the perfect souvenir—
A keychain of chances taken!
To become a flight of local flavors!
To be a swarm of bees at your door!
What is it that makes you
nervous? Tell me.
I check into a motel
and relish in being a woman,
allowed to feel fear.
What I fear most
is losing my friends.
I’ve come to rely on all that electricity
looping back and forth
between their hearts and their heads
pumping them into being,
keeping them here
with me.
–bodies!
What a hassle.
But we make use of them where we can.
Together we search.
We gather.
On occasion
we sink.
the medical term for a sudden loss
in consciousness caused by a drop
in blood pressure.
But when Ellpetha says it aloud
I hear sink hope.
We are in a foreign country.
We are each a foreign country,
and what I want out of life
is the perfect souvenir—
A keychain of chances taken!
To become a flight of local flavors!
To be a swarm of bees at your door!
What is it that makes you
nervous? Tell me.
I check into a motel
and relish in being a woman,
allowed to feel fear.
What I fear most
is losing my friends.
I’ve come to rely on all that electricity
looping back and forth
between their hearts and their heads
pumping them into being,
keeping them here
with me.
–bodies!
What a hassle.
But we make use of them where we can.
Together we search.
We gather.
On occasion
we sink.
Kirsten Shu-ying Chen is the author of Light Waves (Terrapin Books). A MacDowell fellow, Chen has been a finalist for the Autumn House Press Chapbook Prize, and a semi-finalist for Tomaz Salamun Chapbook Prize by Factory Hollow Press, among others. Her work has twice received Pushcart and best-of-the-net nominations and has been published or is forthcoming in Bear Review, PANK, Inquisitive Eater, Hanging Loose, NoDear and elsewhere. She lives in New York.www.kirstenshuyingchen.com
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