There are so many trees here,
did someone plant them?
These trees so close to the
border look like straitjackets. I
wonder who is walking on the
expanse of dirt today. I wonder
who was walking while I was
sleeping. I felt footprints inside
my head. I felt feet jumping. I
don’t understand this place
where there is no mist.
Victoria Chang’s most recent book is OBIT, published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. OBIT received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize, the PEN Voelcker Award in Poetry, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize. Chang’s other poetry books are Barbie Chang, The Boss, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle. She lives in Los Angeles.