"Soft Boiled Egg" by Ally Ang

Image Credit: MARIOLA GROBELSKA, obtained and licensed through Unsplash

Soft Boiled Egg

I have placed all my secrets in my bra
for safekeeping, where they stay sweet
and sticky like mochi. I feed them to you
in spoonfuls over the phone as we drift in
and out of silence. I think the dahlias
forgot to bloom this year, you say
as a way of saying nothing. How do I love
the things I cannot touch? I want to say it then,
but my guts are gently boiling, a soft yolk
of emotion cooking in my belly.
You say goodnight, and your voice rubs
against my clit like the seam of my jeans.
I reach for you, but you’re already gone.
There’s an itch in the crook
of my elbow where your head
used to rest.

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Ally Ang is a gaysian poet hailing from the unceded lands of the Western Nehântick people and an MFA candidate at the University of Washington in Seattle. Their work has been published in The Journal, AAWW's The Margins, Muzzle Magazine, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, and elsewhere. Ally's poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Bettering American Poetry. Find them at allysonang.com or on Twitter @TheOceanIsGay.