Cathy Linh Che's poem "Projector" is a quiet, tense poem that captures the helplessness of a child forced into an adult situation. The poem is painful in its sparseness and heartbreaking in its untold brutality.

The poem is part of Che's forthcoming collection 'Split' [2], available from Alice James Books on April 29th.

-- Karissa Chen, Fiction & Poetry Editor

While I slept, my cousin placed
his mother’s mask on me,
asked me if I loved him. 

He wore wolf ears.
I willed him to hear the change
in atmosphere, the tilt of air 

—no, no, no—

his finger slid
under the white
underwear. 

The air was cool,
my face on fire. 

I wore my woman’s mask.
Underneath,
I was ten years old. 

When he kissed me, the edges
of our magnetic fields touched.
Inside, my heart compressed 

into a black hole.