by Addie Tsai
Poetry
Addie Tsai (she/they) is the author of Dear Twin (2019), included in American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List in 2021; Unwieldy Creatures (2022), a Shirley Jackson Awards finalist for Best Novel; and Straight White Men Can’t Dance: American Masculinity in Film and Popular Culture (2025). Her poetry chapbook Tongue Withheld is forthcoming from Harbor Editions (2027). They are the founding editor-in-chief for just femme + dandy. She is an associate teaching professor of creative writing at William & Mary.
Back to Vol. XI: “PARA/SOCIAL”
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Telephone
Accessible Version
that time, again, 爸爸’s wife’s 爸爸 rasps his child’s name
that time, again, Bàba’s wife’s Bàba rasps his child’s name
my ear wet and scratchy and sprinkled with cigarette ash
my ear wet and scratchy and sprinkled with cigarette ash
不在 I scream only after not here fails and fails and fails
bùzài I scream only after not here fails and fails and fails
I push the sounds out again and again, face flushed, tone imperceptible
I push the sounds out again and again, face flushed, tone imperceptible
always there comes a time when, at a loss, we exchange breaths—
always there comes a time when, at a loss, we exchange breaths—
all we understand before the line goes dead.
all we understand before the line goes dead.