Takes one to know one
by Nafeeza Kayla Pualiyan, Indonesia. First place in the Writory International Poetry Contest, September 2026, scored 99 out of 100.
Nafeeza Kayla Pualiyan "takes one to know one" At the wedding, he pocketed the place card of a woman who asked him to pass the salt. He smoothed her name against his thigh before slipping it beside his keys, as if a name could become familiar from being carried. A waitress called him love. He touched his tongue to his teeth as though the word had left something there. In my purse, a petrol receipt from October: drive safe in blue ink, the letters paling at the fold from how often I had opened it. The bridesmaid brushed his wrist on her way to the wine. By dessert, she had a kitchen facing west, two daughters, and a house near enough to the sea for salt to gather on the windows. He had decided she hated mornings and slept with one foot outside the sheets. She did not know his name. The cake arrived white and many-tiered. Everyone lifted a glass toward the two people whose names had been printed together on menus, on envelopes, on everything meant to last. Under the table, his knee found mine. Neither of us moved. The sugar flowers began to sweat. Across from us, the bride wiped icing from her husbandтАЩs mouth with her thumb. He leaned into her hand without thinking. Beside me, he looked at the bridesmaid. I looked at the receipt inside my purse without taking it out. Later, while everyone searched beneath chairs for coats and handbags, her place card fell from his pocket. I bent to pick it up. So did he. For a moment, our fingers met over a woman who had only asked him for the salt. Neither of us laughed. Both our hands closed around the wrong name.
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