Poetry: “A flowchart for the anxious insomniac” by Chau Anh Nguyen

What better way to navigate anxiety or insomnia, or a combination of both, than a flowchart? We find the experimental form of this poem forces us to sit with the language of it, which is fractured yet interwoven. Two tributaries lead to fragments that could be taken either as beginnings or endings, like “back in that two years,” “underwater,” or “no tomorrow / another tomorrow.” The answers to each question lead to different shapes — sometimes a starburst of options, and other times, a diamond-shaped web. These visual craft decisions feed into the patterns associated with a life measured in both heartache and heartwarming, as the words themselves illumine.

Enjoy Nguyen’s poem below.