There are
tests, after I
have gone. This morning it
was a last minute invite to
breakfast.

Dang. Her
pancakes are my
blueberry dreams. When I
bring in groceries I make just
one trip.

Twenty-
six bags and a
cantaloupe hang from my
forearm, digging a needless farm
of red

hot welts
I hide under
an old black cardigan.
There are essay questions on how
I can

reduce
the hard echo
built of my empty room.
I wish I could freeze us before
we strain

against
the framework of—
when I made pancakes I
always flipped the cake before time
and made

a mess;
and here I have,
again—something tender.
We ate them anyway, back then
pancakes

were still
butter-girlfriend
sweet; but now my hunger
is a sticky syrup on her
fingers.

 

Jeni De La O is an Afro-Cuban poet and storyteller living in Detroit. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Obsidian, Rigorous Magazine, Fifth Wednesday, Gigantic Sequins and others. Jeni founded Relato:Detroit, the nation’s first bilingual community storytelling event, which seeks to bridge linguistics divides through story. She is a Poetry Editor for Rockvale Review and organizes Poems in the Park, an acoustic reading series based in Detroit.