I WILL DIE IN SAN DIEGO IN THE BLAZING SUN
by MARILYN CHIN
(After Caesar Vallejo)
I will die in San Diego in the blinding sun
The sun might singe our irises while driving toward Palm Tree Heaven
So, I wear my polarizing sunglasses I prefer the cat lady vibe
We are so cool in our progressive lenses
Voting democrat is more style than communion
I feel so grateful this morning that my waterproof eyeliner tears up
Marveling at endless blue sky
Drifting on a celestial surfboard above the bioluminescence
Babe, we only have 2087.14 weeks left in paradise
You, being of the weaker sex, might have1565.36 and counting
Babe, I’m only half Christian
I don’t believe in resurrections but sleep with one eye open
Wary of zombie insurrections
Marilyn Mei Ling is not dead yet
Although her visa is expiring her happiness has gone unpunished
Her eyes are at half-mast contemplating the Great Enigma
author pic here
Marilyn Chin is an award-winning poet and her works have become Asian American classics and are taught all over the world. She has published six books of poetry and one book of fiction. Her newest book of poems is called Sage (W.W.Norton, 2023). Her best hits collection is called A Portrait Of The Self As Nation: New And Selected Poems (W.W. Norton, 2018) She has also published a book of wild girl fiction called Revenge Of The Mooncake Vixen.
She has won numerous awards, including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the United States Artist Foundation Award, the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to Bellagio, the Stegner Fellowship, A Lannan fellowship, two NEA grants, the PEN/Josephine Miles Award, a Fulbright Award to Taiwan, and others. She was recognized by the California Assembly for excellence in Education.
She has translated the works of Ai Qing, Gozo Yoshimasu, Ho Xuan Huong and others and is presently writing a Cantonese-American opera.
She is featured in major anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women and The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry. She was featured in the PBS special “Poetry in America.” She was the Holmes Visiting Poet at Princeton for 2022-23. She was elected as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2018 and serves as a Professor Emerita at San Diego State University.
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