ALLISON THUNG
What else counts as poetry
Watching this carafe fill and overflow repeatedly until cloudy dishwater runs clear and free of suds. Holding you so close I can feel your heart pounding against my cheekbone, your scent of soap and aftershave like an autumn sunset. Running my hands through my hair absently and catching my too-loose ring on a tangle, flinging it across the room in a flash of silver as I seek to free myself. Wondering if you, too, are reminded of me by the most banal of things, like a tan leather jacket peeling ever so slightly at the right shoulder seam, a steaming cup of vanilla bourbon tea with just a splash of milk, or nothing—absolutely nothing—at all. Comparing the results of two echocardiograms and understanding that a healthy heart pulses steady and slow, while a palpitating heart overcompensates. Playing out inside my head conversations that would never occur in real life, like the one in which I get to say Cormorant in an office cubicle—magnificence dulled by quotidian fluorescence. You.
Allison Thung is a poet and project manager from Singapore. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Chestnut Review, ANMLY, Heavy Feather Review, The Daily Drunk, Cease, Cows, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter @poetrybyallison or at www.allisonthung.com.