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OFFERING

The poem is formatted so that there is a line running down the middle of the poem, which almost always breaks a word it is passing through into two pieces. The final line breaks this pattern, with two words that are on either side of the line are touching, as well as being oddly spaced The text reads: They make me question the r ing on my finger. The “I do” belong on this side of a prom ise. The border - its serrated edge, trip-wire my wife jum p ropes monthly for medicine. She is a stateless doe in the j aw of a nation playing chicken with excuses for entry and e xit but can’t cite my last name. If only her car could slip thro ugh the meat of a lie like the syringe entering the soft cou ntry of her freckled thigh, never interrogating the vein as a le gal host. When my wife and I are pulled over at the norther n flypaper, the fence demands her name tossed towards a bl oodline wearing the border officer's face. There is nothin g borders won’t steal. Splitting is its birthright. It takes by la w of shattering. Gorges on hot cars rusting at its chin. Hoar ds applications to wipe its oily mouth. Entry, a map folded a long the estuaries of longing. A ticket is nothing but a trade o f all that crops from my touch. I spin a feast from gold at th e pit of me to satiate the globe maker’s need for locks. Her e, take my Nana’s golden curry. Take Aunt Audrey’s silk dah l. Take my father’s homeglazed khati. Take a slice of our wed ding cake. Take the buttercream straight from the corners o f my mouth in the photo. Take my left breast and its dandel ion milk. Take my hand writing down the recipe. But do not t ake the book where it is written. Do not take my love placin g that jewel on its shelf. How can I snap what is drawn in s and? The officers, with all that barb in their speech, say he r name like a chain link curse and I am pressing oxbow m oats into my palms waiting for a drawbridge to wink. I w ant to go home to my wife without dialing up her cheek s. I bring my vows but all I can carry across is her laugh dan cing in a voicemail. I blink away from her face, even fo r an eyelash second, faster than a door slamming a wailing a nthem, but all I’m guaranteed is own hands r e a c h i n g t h r o u g h a fence.

Sarah Tsiang on “OFFERING”

This dense poem invites and then halts, brings you close and then shuts the door. This poem doesn’t let you skip the queue, rather it takes you between homes and borders, longing and separation. “Offering” is a deep and aching look at what tears us apart and brings us together.

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