Ally Malinenko

Literature

            -for Aida

She asks me to say the word again,

watching the way my tongue touches

the back of my teeth and then the pucker of lips

the open sigh, then the kiss again.

Lit-er-a-ture.

It’s my favorite English word, she tells me,

tucking her hair behind her ear.

It is late in Madrid, but still

early enough for more drinks.

We are standing on the street corner

as her boyfriend rolls a cigarette

ducks his head down to light it.

I love that word, she says again

and I think how much I love the word

Love when she says it, the heavy A sound

as if here, on this side of the ocean, love is stronger,

something that will take hold of you

and drag you down.

Yes, let’s go, her boyfriend says, his teeth holding down

the thin paper cigarette and we cross

the street, weaving our way through the warm night.

I reach back,

taking my husband’s hand in mine.

Overhead there is a plane,

and I try not to think of the people,

seated in the little seats,

reading or sleeping,

covered in red blankets, their heads tilted

to the side,

so high above us,

that we four, on this street,

are only fiction to them,

only temporary

because I want this night

and this week

and these stories we have shared to last

much longer than I know they will.

Ally Malinenko has been writing stories and poems for awhile now. Probably too long. She occasionally gets things published. Her first book of poems entitled The Wanting Bone was published by Six Gallery Press and her novel for children Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb was published by Antenna books. She lives in the part of Brooklyn voted to have the best halal food and she blathers at www.allymalinenko.com