MIA to BWI

I’ve returned to my second city
yearning for bibimbap and bulgogi,

hot chicken and chicken boxes,
crab meat and cod, truck loads

of ice cream, anything to keep me
full and woozy during this winter of grief.

I’ve returned to my second city
unsung and open as every little brother

screaming prophecy calf-deep in an ant hill.
Don’t we all come in kicking and screaming,

begging for a slap. When we wail,
the echoing hail of darkness answers back.

*

Jalen Eutsey is a poet, book reviewer, and sportswriter from Miami, Florida. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Miami and an M.F.A. in Poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His work has been published in Into the Void, Northern Virginia Review, Florida Review Online, Cellpoems, and others. He lives in Baltimore.