Dreaming of William Carlos Williams at a Vietnamese Restaurant

I have devoured
the entire bowl
of tofu vermicelli,
which made
my belly swell
like a thundercloud.

I don’t need
forgiveness.
Nobody else
was going to eat it
except me.

The rice noodles
dripped with
salty broth,
and the spicy
peanuts exploded
between my teeth
like perfect firecrackers.

 

 

Leah Mueller is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks and four books. Her next book, Misguided Behavior: Tales of Poor Life Choices, will be published by Czykmate Press in Autumn, 2019. Leah’s work appears or is forthcoming in Blunderbuss, The Spectacle, Outlook Springs, Mojave River Review, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, Barnhouse, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.