THIS PIECE APPEARS IN THE HIGH/LOW ISSUE OF THE LARB QUARTERLY JOURNAL, NO.29.

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A Debt

The bank is empty.
A cluster of birds live there.
The birds are all gold,
but they can fly like dollars.
They are lawless birds
glorified by all our poems.
If you look closely
at the ones in the corner,
some of them have human lips.

 

What Is Modern

Mass graves are modern.
I caught up with the future,
the metal trees are silent
as they wait for us.
The future isn’t modern.
It worries it won’t arrive.

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Victoria Chang’s poetry books include OBIT, Barbie Chang, The Boss, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle. Her children’s books include Is Mommy?, illustrated by Marla Frazee, and Love, Love, a middle grade novel. She lives in Los Angeles and serves as the program chair of Antioch’s low-residency MFA program.