People
Chen Chen

Chen Chen photo

Chen Chen Quotes

Total quotes: 2

Chen Chen photo

Chen Chen

Birthname

Occupations: Researcher

Total quotes: 2

“To be the one
my parents raised me to be—

a season from the planet
of planet-sized storms.”

— Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Tagged: Expectations, Family

“My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend.
But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short
skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday.
My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend.
Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable
pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it
was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with
what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital
& I didn’t want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale,
bad plot, great wifi in the atypical café. My mother was in the hospital
& she didn’t want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family
grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn’t trust my father
to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when I do the list for you. Even then.”

— Chen Chen, In the Hospital

Tagged: Poetry, The Slowdown, Mocha, Tuesday, Sympathies, latte, Wifi, yogurt, Tofu

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