Vivian Delchamps
perpetual adolescence
I want a Wikipedia page, to begin with.
A space, however virtual, that will remember me
when I'm gone.
I also want–unironically–to be TikTok famous.
I want to instill envy in those
who would see me.
I want a Tumblr, filled with beautiful images of books, clothes, flowers, faraway countries.
I want to write words writers tattoo onto their skin.
*
Maybe one day,
I'll decide to stop living
for getting my name into the Books;
I'll stop trying to write in the sand.
I'll start living like an Italian–
eating, loving, howling with dogs at the moon
living like life is for joy (or family, or some synonymous Thing)
Maybe one day (tomorrow)
Bio
Dr. Vivian Delchamps is a professor of English at Dominican University of California. She is a disabled and chronically ill scholar, teacher, dancer, and writer. She received her B.A. in English with minors in French and Dance at Scripps College (2014). She received her M.A. (2017) and Ph.D. (2022) in English at the University of California, Los Angeles. Delchamps primarily researches and teaches the politics of diagnosis and entanglements of disability, gender, and race in American literature. She is also a poet who writes about embodiment and chronic illness. Her favorite symbol is the ampers&.