I still don’t know what you meant / that one time in New York / when we were eating KBBQ / & you leaned forward towards me / (that unwise me who thought I’d chosen well / to sit across from you / rather than next to you, but really / it was much worse / facing your intensely sincere eye contact) / & you said you’d never had a relationship / like ours / & I laughed & shoved a slice / of burnt onion in my mouth / since I didn’t know / what to say, not even / a little, because / what good Asian girl / knows how to love another girl / but / then I saw / the verge of a smile / in your eye / before it disappeared because / this, my friend / is something serious, / so serious.
Ashley Wang is a Chinese American writer living in Houston and a poetry editor for R2: The Rice Review. She participates in NaPoWriMo each year and likes using it as a disjointed journal of sorts. Her work is featured in Stone of Madness Press, The Ekphrastic Review, and Eunoia Review.