by Chloe Martinez

Forgetting to Eat Breakfast While Reading Badge
Luxuriating in Bed on Sunday Morning Badge
Catching Lizards by Their Tails and Releasing Them in Safer Places Badge
Sitting in Mom’s Office After School Because She Missed Extended      
   Day Signups and Instead of Complaining, Putting All Her Paperclips into One Giant    
   Paperclip Chain Badge
Dancing in the Supermarket Badge
Sorrow for the Dog You Can Hear Howling Every Morning Badge
Imagining Badge
Being Patient While Your Little Sister Has Yet Another Fit Badge
Badge for Intensity of Focus
Badge for Kind Words for a Friend
Steadfast Refusal to Eat Foods You Don’t Like Badge
Delight Badge
Distractibility Badge (also called Noticing That Flower Badge)
Badge for Laughing So Hard You Fall on the Floor
Rolling Your Eyes and Returning to Your Book When Your Parents Try to Give  
   Educational Lectures Badge
Living in Your Body Badge
Tripping and Falling Badge
Insisting on Your Own Pronunciation of “Mesopotamia” Badge
Stroking Your Mom’s Hair When She is Crying Badge
Comic Book World Creation Badge
Actual World Creation Badge
Slamming Bedroom Door Badge
Desiring Justice Badge
Badge of Being Nervous Before the Piano Recital
Badge of Doing it Anyway
Sharing Dad’s Obsession with the Pan-Asian Mega-Buffet in Ontario Badge
Secretive Looking at Yourself Happily in the Mirror Sometimes Badge
Insistence on Doing it Your Way Badge
Badge of Putting Things in the Places You Want Them to Be
Tiredness Badge
Badge of Wonder
Not Caring That Much About Collecting Badges Badge
Distinct Beauty of Your Own Particular Self Badge
Born Just Before a Snowstorm Badge
Being Oh Being Beloved Badge


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Chloe Martinez is a poet and scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of Corner Shrine (Backbone Press, 2020), which won the 2019 Backbone Press Chapbook Competition, and Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works, forthcoming 2021). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Waxwing, Shenandoah, The Common and elsewhere. She teaches at Claremont McKenna College. See more at www.chloeAVmartinez.com.