One Night Only
The recipe invites itself to eat and laughs at its own jokes.
Puns of tripled and quadruped meanings.
Was I ratting on you?
I invite everyone. Everyone is my friend.
Would you like some of my sandwich?
I really mean you can come forward
with your mouth open.
Once, I wrote a play. There was only one scene.
A girl lists the food she wants to eat.
Jasmine rice sautéed in garlic and sesame oil. A fish you caught yourself.
I put gold flecks in the sauce so everyone will know how happy we are.
I call the play Loves You Long Time.
The manuscripts are drying and dying out in mouldering museums.
Pick one:
1. Filipinos don’t care about their history
2. Filipinos can’t afford to preserve the manuscripts in this kind of tropical heat.
3. Los manuscripts no existe. I only told you about them because I love you and you love me.
From Loves You. Copyright © 2019 by Sarah Gambito. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Persea Books.
Sarah Gambito
Sarah Gambito holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Brown University. She is the author of three collections, most recently Loves You (Persea Books, 2019). A cofounder of Kundiman, Gambito is the Director of Creative Writing at Fordham University. She lives in New York City.