Something to Help Me Sleep / Liz Kay

  A  founding editor of the journal burntdistrict, Liz Kay holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska, where she was the recipient of both an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Wendy Fort Foundation Prize for exemplary work in poetry. In 2008, she was awarded a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize for excellence in lyric poetry. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Nimrod, Willow Springs, The New York Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review, Redactions, and Sugar House Review. Ella at the Cafe At first I’d add too much sugar, spill the foam right over the lip as I tried to stir. I’ve been coming here for weeks now, and learned to like it a little less sweet. I’ve started planning my days to get here before him. He drops his bag in a chair, takes a long sip, sucking in air and steam. His lips purse as if he might whistle across the cup, and the hairs at the back of my neck move in answer.