By Emily Jacko
we love you no matter what
& they reach for their forks.
how was work today? my mother asks my
father. i sit not eating but weeping
who is punishing who? i almost tell them sorry for
work was good, he says & they smile
(hello i have been lying to you for the past six months &
i am in a relationship with a woman do you want to meet
her or ask me anything how about we start with the color of
her hair?)
wiping their mouths between bites of
we said what we were supposed to say
& i wash the dishes after.
Emily Jacko is currently an MFA student at Chatham University. She studies Poetry and Pedagogy. She is published in OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, Capulet Mag, Coffee People Zine, Panopoly Mag, Cathexis Northwest Press, The Allegheny Review and PoetsChoice. She was a guest editor for The Fourth River Review. She has taught Creative Writing at Sojourner House Pittsburgh through the Words Without Walls program.