Poetry: “Space” by Aaliyah Anderson

Space

I am the store my nails coordinating the meat
How I want
Bokchoy & MSG
Packets that make my tongue easier
To exterminate
A white man is looking
At the Milkis & tapioca &
I must retrieve my freezer burned
Pork I don’t eat but he needs to google
Engine goes beep! where to store
This call Talayeh I can’t stink
Up the entire dorm I buy
Sardines my roommate can’t stand
Fish but I want to become
The sea my sweat persistent in early
November I want to know
How to say hello in your
Language how to eat
Without my thick knuckles
But the window’s stagnant
In endless-sky in the aisles
In the unpackaged pans my body
Could fit in knees & all

About Aaliyah Anderson

Aaliyah Anderson (she/her) is a Black and Asian American student at the University of Mary Washington majoring in English: Creative Writing and American Studies. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Third Coast, The Madison Review, Brink, and elsewhere. Winner of the Poetry Society of America's 2024 Student Award, Aaliyah currently resides on Monacan and Patawomeck land and is obsessed with burnt cheese and intersectional storytelling.