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While walking in Chinatown, Allie says
If I had married my college boyfriend, I’d be a single mom on welfare.
We are drinking bubble tea, its sunset colors and glistening dark pearls
pressed against the cup like faces come to the window.
Jason picks up a knob of ginseng, holds it to his nose.
We palm lumps of sugared ginger,
the transparent moons of lychee candies glow against our skin.
Across the street a plant spills itself onto a cement stoop.
Above a doorway, like a brass god, a man chokes sound from his guitar, indifferent to us.
Three hours until dark. The El arrives and we enter, one by one, into our own lives.
Sarah A. Etlinger is an English professor who lives in Milwaukee, WI.. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she is the author of 4 books; most recently, A Bright Wound (Cornerstone Press 2024). Recent work appears in Spoon River Poetry Review, Pithead Chapel, Rattle, and many others.
THE CITY KEY 