A Number Is a Place
By Norman Tran
“Every 4th of a / second, a new future is born. Every 17 seconds, a future leaves behind only a scent. I / wonder what an almost future smells like. The smell of rusted incense.”
Norman Tran
Norman Tran (he/they) is a queer, neurodivergent Chinese American poet and educator from Los Angeles. Their work is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, and appears in Honey Literary, Tell Me About the Dream (Papaya Press, 2025), The Seventh Wave, and elsewhere. They are a 2026 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow whose writing has been supported by FAWC, Kundiman, Lambda Literary, and Periplus Collective. They are working towards their debut collection, cross-examining Gaysian polyamorous relationships and the patterns that make us love recklessly, silently, exponentially.