“Triple Sonnet for Why We’re Honey: An Editor’s Note” by Dorothy Chan

Triple Sonnet for Why We’re Honey: An Editor’s Note

             My father teaches me Chinese proverbs
at our kitchen table in Las Vegas
             as we’re ushering in a new year
according to the Lunar calendar.
             “Take care of your friends, the way you water
your plants,” he says in Cantonese, meaning
             friends, like plants, need nurturing, and we should
check in every few days. I teach my students
             about oranges, and how my grandfather in
Hong Kong leaves citrus for our ancestors.
             Community is everything, is all I’ve been
thinking about lately. Could I assign a flower
             to each of my friends—I adore the sound
of tuberose—how sturdy yet elegant they

look in a bouquet, or was Georgia O’Keeffe’s
             lushness & landscapes part of your queer
awakening. Water your plants. Love your
             friends. That’s all good & dandy & I don’t
disagree, but we need to apply this proverb
             to larger systems. Don’t give me a bouquet.
Give me the whole damn field. Or a meadow
             that’s Instagram-worthy where all the lupines
blossom without question. “Poetry teaches us
             Truth with a capital ‘T’” was the first lesson
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon ever taught me,
             while she called on June and Lucille and Toni
and Gwendolyn and Nikky and Elizabeth and
             Rita and Evie. Pass the mic. “Community care

             for posterity, not just the present moment,”
my Rita says, “And honor legacy.” Or I want
             someone younger than me to eventually teach
someone younger than them, then someone
             younger than them, then someone younger
than them, and rinse and repeat this cycle
             until posterity, so we can see our young ones
of color & our young queers of color & our young
             I check so many boxes when it comes to who
I am within this beauty called intersectionality
             even though, well, fuck boxes—thrive. Rinse
& repeat. As a child in Hong Kong, I strutted
             a bouquet home once. Well, Team Honey
wants our Hive to have the entire damn field.

Photo Credit: Joshua David Watson

About Dorothy Chan

Dorothy Chan is the author of five poetry collections, including the forthcoming, Return of the Chinese Femme (Deep Vellum, Spring 2024). They are an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of Honey Literary Inc.