hutt

Jane Wong is a young writer from central New Jersey whose work has appeared in journals such as Chronogram, Bard Papers, and the Asians in America Project. She is also the poetry editor of Verse Noire, a literary magazine based out of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

There lies a dead brown on the stoop
A dead brown
                          struck by               the stray who sneaks into
                                                      the funny pipe.
Mother is boiling
            pots of water to
            wash away                           flies
She is hardly sentimental and                                                 it boils.
Baby is pointing,
                         "that brown is drop dead"
the shovel folds
              "no, that brown is drop dead"

the greased clay
paper planes
on the roof           there
stupid vegetarians
with their signs
            Mother gesturing in wings:
                                                                             What is cottage cheese anyway?
stupid dirty clay mean vegetarians   this place never sold
I had to use your shoulders
                                        to swipe at        the gutters.

We are trapped in the meat freezer again
                                       pressing our tongue
                                                     against the shock
         I think of touch and how I could burst
                                                                                brain,
                                                                                liver,
                                                                                dorsal
Outside,           Mother dumps the leftovers
and lets us out,
her hands on her   hip.