I tell my children by Victoria Chang

I tell my children

by Victoria Chang

published in her 2020 book, Obit (Copper Canyon Press)

I tell my children

that hope is like a blue skirt,

it can twirl and twirl,

that men like to open it,

take it apart, and wound it.

I tell my children

that sometimes I too can hope,

that sometimes nothing

moves but my love for someone,

and the light from the dead star.