Johnson Cheu's poems can be found in the anthologies Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out (Dutton/Plume), June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint (Routledge), and Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images (Coffee House), as well as periodicals such as North American Review, Witness, Disability Studies
Quarterly, Midwest Poetry Review, The Progressive, Red River Review, Black Zinnias, and The Massachusetts Review. Recently, he completed his tenure as Poetry/Fiction Editor of Disability Studies Quarterly, and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Literary Disability. Cheu is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and
American Cultures at Michigan State University.

What I Learned from Wonder Woman

— after Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s
“What I Learned From the Incredible Hulk”

When not wanting to attract

undue attention, glasses, a simple

black pantsuit and pinned-up

hair will work wonders. A look

that says Hey, as long as you’re not

breaking security codes or kidnapping

visiting dignitaries, I can be a pretty

soft-spoken kind of girl. But threaten

what she loves and in a flash

even bracelets can become weaponry.

I’ve learned that a woman also needs

time alone, a visit with her sisters.

When she returns, a truce

may be in order, for she always

has a way to lasso out her truth.

Red doesn’t always mean anger.

It’s the color that adorns her breastbone,

a mark of mutual desire as you mouth

her breast, patchouli-scented, golden

as shook foil in the candlelight.