BIO
Elisa Gonzalez is a Puerto Rican writer raised in Ohio. She has a B.A. in English literature from Yale University and is currently enrolled in New York University's M.F.A. in creative writing. She, predictably, now lives in Brooklyn.
http://fearoflanguage.squarespace.com/
After I Threw Your Things Off the Balcony
I followed you into the stairwell
and down
your backpack already hoisted over one shoulder
Du mit mir kommst?
though I speak no German only Spanish I understood
on other nights you’ve pressed your lips to my shoulder
wheedling: let’s schlafen now
schlafen, schlafen
a poet said once “my poem needs more German”
the black gate rattled shut, iron
atomizing your face before you turned
away, easy with going, light on your feet
Die Erde überwältigt mich
the poet wrote in reply to herself:
“the earth defeats me”
you careless butcher, no
I am not coming with you
tschuss, tschuss
We need no more German—
as the black door creaks shut, on your head
the moon overflows like a backed-up vacuum cleaner