We move tarnished tin teapots
to back burners. Slight hisses from gas lines
fight against the rain; heated floorboards
question the season. Down come soy sauce
& sesame seeds from cheap, wooden cupboards.
We laugh about philosophy & wonder about
onion soup recipes. The Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones”
plays from a MacBook. Your hands open packets
of ramyeon. Mine shoot back shots of soju.
Sure, there’s the stink from cooking, but we will
sweeten the air with Rilke, your California
voice mingling with my east-coast tongue.
Andrew Milewski spent most of his life in Lackawanna. He also spent two years in South Korea, where he rode in crowded subways to cultural lectures and swing dance socials. He taught English to small children there, too. He is co-editor of The Gorge. He had an idea to make a blog of travel poems (though that has yet to manifest), & he was involved with arts and literature at The University of Scranton.
The Gorge 