Olivia Sio Tse

A Favor

Make everything stay: the cans
in the yard, cat on its sill. Twist-
off dusk a mint melting

the valley’s tongue. I want every
year past to press firmly against
yesterday, exactly how

it feels. Want days to flush the way
they feel & parties to be worth each
cent, to find someone

safely asleep in the pantry, hugging
bread. Make sure the kids don’t
jump when I’m gone

& keep their chip tune going with
quarters of worship. I am looped &
greedy & want everywhere

to be ready for my shape, receive
me like a trampoline. I hope you
haven’t gone skating

yet. If you have, pretend you’ve
never let your feet touch the ice or
even been nibbled by

winter, that fire together was first.
Roommates still in their rooms &
best outfits. Hope I have

mail, the menu hasn’t changed, &
our alley still smells like rot. That
saving a place is simple

as chewing it slow. I can pretend I
didn’t pastel, that I only left to buckle
back with my hair

still wet. Pretend there is a creamy
green logic to leaving at all.

Olivia Sio Tse is a poet from Texas and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Second Factory, Denver Quarterly, Bennington Review, and elsewhere.