Two Poems

by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu


 

Joan Chen

 

Letterman tries to make her take off her jacket

but she refuses him

he asks if she has another engagement

but she says she is here purely for him

the audience oohs and trills like frilly eels

but she looks more to me like tender student

than supple-bodied sphinx

 

Letterman asks if there are cars in China

and if she came by plane to America

he asks is she a US citizen

what the test is like now and

who the second president was

 

I don’t know she sofa shrugs

you should know he armchair reprimands

I got it she says like she is sticking out her tongue

he says that doesn’t mean it’s chewing gum

that we live by the constitution

Every Single Day of Our Lives

And the audience whistles and claps and sets off fireworks

 

She smiles a secret snug in herself

points her hand at him like a teacher

Tell Me Who

Tell Me-

I better not find out you’re driving a cab he shouts over her

Who

Tell Me Who

Tell Me Who

Who Who is

the Third President

He doesn’t answer

 

2.

a girl on a tram told me

I looked like Josie Packard

I forgot her name and never looked her up

a girl in my office told me she was watching Twin Peaks

and wanted to text to say that I was Joan Chen

but she was afraid it might be racist

 
twin_peaks_abc_11_-_h_2017.jpg

I found a young Joan Chen on the internet

sad long look

blurred mascara

still firm mouth

red raw apple                         

 

her haircut wasn’t a Russian novel

it was an Emily Dickinson poem

speaking not about the long leaves of hair

but the bare lines of neck and shoulders

 

3.

Joan Chen wrote on her food blog that

whilst drifting through the aisles of American Apparel

waiting for her daughter to try on clothes

a shop girl approached her and asked

are you the girl from Twin Peaks?

 

she was surprised and embarrassed

to find that they might connect

this slob

with Joan Chen

 
 

 
 

Taylor Swift

1.

she says that she hasn’t been alone

for the past ten years

 

the opposite of alone is

I try really hard to be a nice person but     if you break my he-------art I’ll probably

that joke is so old and it comes from such a sexist

so many bad boyfriends

I’m genuinely obsessed with my

so many great girlfriends

 

3.

the opposite of alone is

I can’t believe I get to play in front of

stadium-size crowds of

I don’t like to think of them as fans

friends outside her apartment

the little girl on the scooter  the dad in the cap

the secret service standing         in service of her secrecy

the people with cameras for eyes

 
 

5.

the opposite of alone is

so I’ll find myself smiling in my sleep

because I think there are people in my room taking pictures of me

on her face a half

moon   muscle memory of

the self in the glass eye   of the camera   white blink

she isn’t seeing anyone at the moment

she is seeing herself all over again

 

6.

The opposite of alone is

how does she know

she is smiling in her sleep

if she is asleep

 

Jessica Zhan Mei Yu is a writer of essays, poetry, fiction and scholarly work. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Monthly, Sydney Morning Herald, Best Australian Poems, Overland, The White Review and more.

 

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