03/09/2026
first post of 2026 after a two year hiatus
https://tagvverk.info/2026/09/03/yuyi-chen/
from “The Academics” by Yuyi Chen.
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“3am appeared to be the right time doubting�the omnipotence of sleep so I chose to pay�attention to the blue tarp’s late blueness.�there were women sleeping under the steady�hushes outside the spring-infested city hall�whose streets instructed our living orderly.
you can sit down anywhere in the world if you�have a chair. we were sitting down at this�important street corner when a man walked by�starting to yell. ‘who could have worked for how�long you claimed they have worked & not already�have died in the emergency room somewhere.’�he was upset we were sitting down here foreign�-ly. he speculated abt the intention of foreignness.
this city has the biggest manhole known to me,�many tiny hands tickling its possibilities. legend�has it our new mayor sleeps deep down the�snake pit, his legs all tangled up to defend our�sewage. there’s a chance he cries himself to sleep�every night. some like to echo the whimpering.”
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YUYI CHEN is from Sichuan, China. Erotic Continent is their first book, out now from Discount Guillotine. The Academics is now available from Blue Bag Press. Their work can be found in Chicago Review, Cleveland Review of Books, Common Place Poetics, and others. They go by Echo.
from The Academics
