Anelise Chen

So Many Olympic Exertions

#11

last night i was feeling depressed so i drank half a bottle of wine
and by the time i was talking to my family i was in a good mood but
everything made me want to cry. after i got off the phone i googled
“baby animals tumblr” i googled “knut polar bear” i googled “baby knut
video” i followed a link “knut keeper dead” i googled “knut keeper
dead why?” i googled “knut keeper conspiracy” i got bored i googled
“animals talking” i googled “animals talking new” i googled “what does
it mean when cat says ‘nom’?” i googled “cat abuse” i got bored i
googled “famous writers” i googled “famous writers young” i googled
“jonathan lethem young” i did an image search i googled “brooding
young jonathan lethem” i googled “brooding young men hot” i got a
picture of cocteau i googled “cocteau shirtless” i googled “cocteau
beach no shirt” i found nothing i googled “jonathan lethem interview”
i read something funny i googled “how do writers stay thin” i googled
“sedentary life advice” i googled “writing on treadmill” i googled my
own name i googled my own name again and clicked on something i
googled “young novelist age cut off’ i googled “mercury retrograde
when” i got nothing i googled something else

Anelise Chen's fiction, poetry, and video art has appeared or is forthcoming in Gigantic, New Haven Review, Try!, and elsewhere. Her non-fiction has appeared in The Rumpus and PEN America. She is one of the founders of Hydra, a collective of writers dedicated to the eccentric and conspiratorial.