The Greatest Love Story: A Triple Sonnet Editor’s Note by Dorothy Chan
The Greatest Love Story: A Triple Sonnet Editor’s Note by Dorothy Chan
Dear Honey Hive, did you ever think about
How all our names could be in Lou Bega’s
Mambo No. 5? Nineties child. Excess. “Like
Eating too many chocolates,” Jude very Law
Answered when asked about filming Alfie
With the most gorgeous women on Earth.
What’s a Hottie—I mean, a Honey, anyway?
Or how Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl tells
Starter boyfriend Nate she prefers the Gold
Collection when it comes to Godiva. Who’s
The Queen Bee—I mean, the Honey, now?
We all want the Chocolate Cherry Cordial,
Which is both reality & metaphor—sexiness
Personified—sticky finger, naughty femme
Manicured hand stuck in the cookie jar. Or
Give us back innocence à la Winnie the Pooh
Stuck in a tree, gloved hand eating beloved
Honey. Whose Hunny, I mean, Honey are you
Anyway? Pooh tells Rabbit he wants both
Marmalade and Honey. Excess. Because one
Key to life is knowing we’ll be stuck eating
Meals with our favorite people until eternity.
Do you want honey or milk with your tea?
Do you want honey or milk & a biscuit to go
With your metaphors? Or XOXO & meet
Me on the roof in an hour is usually the site
Of all great romance in the movies—But
The greatest love story ever told is really
Among and about friends. Across the river,
You find who you trust the most in dreams—
In life. Or how I want to hold hands with
Little me and tell them You are more than
Enough in this world. When a boy makes me
Cry, I turn to the Triple Sonnet, my Triple
Axel, as Nabila says. When a girl makes me
Laugh, I turn to my Triple Axel, my Triple
Sonnet, which sounds like a fast-food order
Elevated with tea. My Poetry Dad, Norman
Loved In-N-Out burgers. I should leave one
Out for him, as Rita says. Dear Honey Hive,
Did you ever think about how we’ve achieved
The eternal love letter—the endless sentence—
About Dorothy Chan
Dorothy Chan (she/they) is the author of five poetry collections, including Return of the Chinese Femme (Deep Vellum, April 2024); BABE (Diode Editions, 2021), a 2022 finalist for the Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize from the New England Poetry Club; and Revenge of the Asian Woman (Diode Editions, 2019), a finalist for the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry. 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., a 501(c)(3) BIPOC literary arts organization. Chan was a 2022 recipient of the University of Wisconsin System’s Dr. P.B. Poorman Award for Outstanding Achievement on Behalf of LGBTQ+ People. This past summer, they were a Visitor at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Chan’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Poetry Society of America, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. Visit their website at dorothypoetry.com.
Headshot Credit: Joshua David Watson