“Hemlock, 1956,” a Poem by Victoria Chang

“Hemlock, 1956,” a Poem by Victoria Chang

A wooden door in front of everything. A door on my country. A door in the lake. My poems prefer wooden hunting dogs. If I say there is a door on my heart in the poem, then there is. Now I can open this door. The door is a short door though. I must kneel down to crawl in, drag my body through with my wooden elbows. I bump into my wooden mother who is also crawling in my heart. She smiles so large that her suffering lights up the tunnel. I can now…