I Tried to Tell You by Angela Hui

I tried to tell you

outright, and you listened like a
               therapist, like a
               bitch, nodding all too wisely in your
               foolheadedness. I dissected an

animal, pointed at the ventricles and the
               fibrous tissue, and you sniffed the
               formaldehyde and grimaced: “Not the
               freshest cut,” you said. So I wrote you a

story, which you read dutifully and compared to a
               song I hated. O, you dumb boy, lost in my
               tangle of too-many wasted words, find me a
               path to your little brain! Or should I puzzle you with a

poem? And in the penultimate stanza announce, this is a
               poem about you, this is a
               scream named after you, and a
               smarter boy would understand it, but a

                                          smarter boy wouldn’t make me write it.

Angela Hui is a junior at Harvard College pursuing an A.B. in English. Her favorite cities are San Francisco and Houston. She enjoys calling her representatives in Congress and spending time with her dog-in-law, Tex Willy Leebron. Find her on Twitter @angelafhui.