Aubade for a Friend

by Chad Knuth

Aubade for a Friend

My friend stands in his kitchen peeling boiled eggs

Apologizing profusely for the strength of his own hands

I tell him it’s okay—I will eat the mangled ones

Tell him I’m used to eating ugly things

Be it wilting lettuces or sprouting spuds

Be it kernels in my teeth while they’re grinding in my sleep

Or the knotting of my throat when I’m chewing on my words

If you—     I would—     We could—

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Poet Chad Knuth (he/him) has served as the VP of Programming for the North Carolina Poetry Society and as a Poets’ Council Member for the Town of Carrboro, NC. He is a recipient of the Poetry Society of Virginia’s Carleton Drewry Memorial Award, and his work has been anthologized in The Nature of Our Times (Paloma Press, 2025) and Kakalak (Moonshine Review Press, 2025), and is featured in The Crawfish, Digest Magazine, and Ponder Review, among others. He holds an MFA from UNC-Greensboro, where he served as Managing Editor of The Greensboro Review. You can find him at chadknuth.com.

Artist Josiane Kouagheu (she/her) is a journalist, writer, photographer, painter and poet from Cameroon. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Brittle Paper, African Writer Magazine, Kalahari Review, Frontier Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Nomad review, Apricity Magazine, Al Dente Journal and elsewhere.