Separating

Kyle Dargan

there is blood in the morning eggthat makes me turn and weep—Audre Lorde

Between the work at workand the work at home, I rushinside a grocery to buythe bits for quick breakfasts                                                                that leave me hungry                                                                by the time I return to my office.                                                                It is an organic market,                                                                and as I shop I can hear my mother—her mouth full of pennies—mocking each cent I overpayfor staples. But time’s expenseburns black holes in pockets,                                                                so no detour to a cheaper store.                                                                So honey priced like wine.                                                                So six eggs for what would                                                                buy twelve. All in the nameof time. It will be days before Ihave a moment when I canpause my pre-commuteto click on the electric kettle, boil                                                                water for steeping rooibos                                                                and poaching eggs. Eventually,                                                                I reach inside the refrigerator,                                                                revisit the words “cage-free”“pasture-raised” which all read,in my earlier haste, like gibberishstrings of dollar signs. Crackedopen, what the brown pods                                                                release into the ramekin is a yolk-                                                                yellow so plump and lucent.                                                                I tear up thinking of all the weak                                                                or sallow suns I have droppedinto water, of the stressedexistences that made those eggs.What of my thin shell or myown yoke unbroken within me                                                                (both functions of money, time,                                                                deficits)? And I know nothing                                                                about industrial farms. And I                                                                understand so much of blacknessas what I do in spite of my caging.But I know I cannot buy anotheregg not laid by a birdI believe foraged, walked freely                                                                under the sun—deciding                                                                how to value her motion, her blood.                                                                A bourgeois privilege, I know.                                                                But if not to make that choice,why else am I grinding myself down for these wages?

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Kyle Dargan is the author of the forthcoming collection Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly/NUP, 2018). His four previous collections, all published by the University of Georgia Press, include Honest Engine, Logorrhea Dementia, Bouquet of Hungers and The Listening. He is the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine (www.postnoills.com), and an associate professor of creative writing at American University in Washington, D.C., where he lives. For more information, please visit www.american-boi.com.

The Adroit Journal

August 2018

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Peter LaBerge

Managing Editor
Garrett Biggs

Executive Editor
Heidi Seaborn

Poetry Editors
Emily Cinquemani
Kate Gaskin
Lisa Hiton
Wayne Johns
Talin Tahajian

The Adroit Journal was founded in November 2010 by poet Peter LaBerge. At its foundation, the journal has its eyes focused ahead, seeking to showcase what its global staff of emerging writers sees as the future of poetry, prose, and art.

Recently featured in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prizes: Best of the Small Presses, Poetry Daily, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, Verse Daily, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Teen Vogue, and NPR, the journal has featured the voices of Terrance Hayes, Franny Choi, D. A. Powell, Alex Dimitrov, Lydia Millet, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ocean Vuong, Ned Vizzini, Fatimah Asghar, Danez Smith, and beyond.

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