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Summer 2023 • Vol. XLV No. 3 Poetry |

Wheat, 1957

I waited three months to see the wheat. When I finally entered the small heptagon that they had built for Agnes’s paintings, it was the wrong shape. The paintings were too close together, so the grays, blues, and whites began to blend      

like childhood, but the other childhood, the one written over by memory. In Agnes’s room, I tried to remember my childhood wonder but couldn’t. Just gallows, labyrinths, blood. But now, many days later, I look at my photo of

like childhood, but the other childhood, the one written over by memory. In Agnes’s room, I tried to remember my childhood wonder but couldn’t. Just gallows, labyrinths, blood. But now, many days later, I look at my photo of   

Agnes’s wheat and think of my mistake — that wonder is in objects, not memories. This entire time, I have been slaughtered by memories. In front of me, all along, the dandelion, the Petoskey, the ring.            

  

                                           

                                                        

Photo of Victoria Chang

Victoria Chang’s most recent book of poems is With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), which received the Forward Prize for Poetry. Chang is the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and serves as Director of Poetry@Tech.

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By Victoria Chang

The Kenyon Review · “The Bear” by Victoria Chang I scanned the coast with my new binoculars. Today was in the glass. So washappiness. So I scannedand scanned. My inner […]

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