Aileen Ma grew up in Shanghai, China and was a 2009 California Governor's Arts Scholar in Creative Writing. She currently lives in Washington, DC. This is her first chapbook. You can find her online at aileenmawrites.tumblr.com.

Jane Listens



I have managed to find a signal

I am in the middle of nowhere gorgeous beautiful
ruined to me nowhere and even though I have family in this part of the world
and there are billions of people in this country
the only goddamn person I can talk to is Jane

She listens.

She's in the opposite corner of the country and this is costing me so much every minute but she listens.

She tells me that I've done nothing wrong
nothing at all darling.

She tells me that
I have to talk to him
and tell him that it was not okay.

And I tell her I know, I know

but how.