Ami Patel
The multiverse collapses and I meet my selfish self
Look at you. She starts to stroke my hair
fingers catching in my split ends.
I examine her soft hands, gold nails.
She hasn’t scraped at crusty dishes
or cradled the rough of barbells
to sculpt herself into a mountain of worthy.
She seems amused at the clutter of mail,
the half-filled notebooks, the faded rug.
My reality heats my cheeks, my lungs.
I tell her I don’t need new things.
But do I dare ask what I want to know?
What frequency is our freedom, and
how the fuck do I fix this broken nob?
Night collapses around us. A train tumbles
from one dreary shipyard to another.
We sit on the floor, our knees touching.
She orders pizza, picks off all the mushrooms
slides them straight into her mouth and sighs.
I’m left with a pockmarked piece,
and it’s fine, no really, it is. It’s familiar,
the lack, the craving of wanting
and never feeling full.
fingers catching in my split ends.
I examine her soft hands, gold nails.
She hasn’t scraped at crusty dishes
or cradled the rough of barbells
to sculpt herself into a mountain of worthy.
She seems amused at the clutter of mail,
the half-filled notebooks, the faded rug.
My reality heats my cheeks, my lungs.
I tell her I don’t need new things.
But do I dare ask what I want to know?
What frequency is our freedom, and
how the fuck do I fix this broken nob?
Night collapses around us. A train tumbles
from one dreary shipyard to another.
We sit on the floor, our knees touching.
She orders pizza, picks off all the mushrooms
slides them straight into her mouth and sighs.
I’m left with a pockmarked piece,
and it’s fine, no really, it is. It’s familiar,
the lack, the craving of wanting
and never feeling full.
Biography
Ami Patel (she/her) is a queer, diasporic South Asian poet and Young Adult fiction writer. She is a two-time VONA alum and a Tin House alum. Ami's poetry is published in decomp journal, perhappened mag, The West Review, and They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets. You can find her online at amipatelwrites.com and @amiagogo on Twitter and Instagram.
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