The boss wears wrist guards I risk carpal tunnel without them can’t
see anything but her fingers palm hidden palm line of the liver line
of Apollo line of deposition hidden the line of the heart leaks out the end
of it sneaks out of the guard the black guard covers the heart line is it wavy
is it long and curvy broken is it broken mine touches my life line my heart
breaks easily my daughter’s heart line begins below the middle finger she is
selfish please don’t be a selfish boss please be a boss please be selfish the
middle finger is the longest the middle is used by those without power who want
it the fingers are stuck together once our neighbor lost his middle finger while
fixing a lawn mower no longer able to flip off someone the middle finger does
not resemble a bird the bird is something with power the bird can fly away
Victoria Chang’s second book of poems, Salvinia Molesta, was published in 2008 by the University of Georgia Press as part of the VQR Poetry Series. Her first book, Circle, won the Crab Orchard Review Open Competition Prize in Poetry and was published by the Southern Illinois University Press in 2005. She also edited an anthology titled Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation, published by The University of Illinois Press (2004). She lives in Southern California and works as a business writer.
