Tea for Two Cha Cha
T. De Los Reyes | Poetry
You turn on the radio and it’s Xavier Cugat
and his orchestra. You plan to go gently
throughout your day, but why not do
a little shimmy on the way to the kitchen.
The morning is warm, dog kisses are free,
and the soft, pillowy bun has a surprise
slice of cheese in the middle. The bathroom
floor doesn’t have water stains this time,
and the book you bought many moons ago
finally arrived in the mail. Listen, can you
believe you don’t have to be anything but
whom you already are? The music flows
from room to room like a river, like sunlight,
like blood in your nerves, and you never have
to apologise to anyone. When they said worlds
are trapped within a person they meant
wild thing, and dance, and stardust.
T. De Los Reyes is a poet and designer. Her chapbook, Woeman, was published by Hawai’i Review. She was a finalist for the 2021 Sappho Prize by Palette Poetry. Her poems have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Crazyhorse, Hobart After Dark, Pleiades, Split Lip Magazine, West Trestle Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Rabbit Catastrophe Review, The Philippine Free Press, and The Philippine Graphic, among others. She lives and writes in Manila, Philippines.
Featured Image by Nacho Carretero Molero