PITY THE NATION

one time i saw this editor at an opening

sounding like someone delivering a book report

w/o having done the reading

making no sense

looking like chicken fat in a trash bag

somehow melting

somewhat motionless

his wife feeding him

parfait spoon

starkist chicken

nothing is sacred

maybe listening

—

from Issue 05 of Cobra Milk

—

MICHAEL CHANG (they/them) is the author of THINGS A BRIGHT BOY CAN DO (Coach House, 2025) and HEROES (Temz Review/845 Press, 2026). They won the Poetry Project’s Brannan Prize and edited Lambda Literary’s Emerge anthology. Their work has appeared in such publications as AGNI, the American Poetry Review, the Greensboro Review, Harvard Review, the Iowa Review, and POETRY. Their translation work (from the Italian) has been featured in the Cortland Review, Denver Quarterly, and other outlets. They judged Cream City Review’s 2025 Prize in Poetry. They live in Manhattan.