best of issue

please bury the plastic hanger with your grandfather

the worn clothes hanger. junk. stumble-splinter-oak-scrap furnish, and the

friction-full s-l-i-d-e of a coat. holes. the sharp twang

of rubber band headlines, bleeding ink the way that you have bled for less.

i dreamt of a warm hearth, grandfather tells you. his hand, decorated with

patchwork and callus and time time time, cradles your head the way your

forefathers didn’t. a metal hanger, steady and lovely and enduring. Mine.

your father tells you that warm hearths are either built

or born. dreaming does you no good. your gut, cold. you never did learn how

to call something home. apparently, your father never did either.

star-speckle. lady liberty, save us all! we come to you for—perseverance.

land of the Free, hear! blue-collar. blue fingers. bitten cheeks—bloody.

look, sporting our colors already! how patriotic. you’ll fit right in.

grandfather asks to be buried with his coat hanger. sentimentality, then—

but your father. this one, he knows what it’s like to lose functionality

is his currency, efficiency gold. sentiment has no place in his hearth.

a yard sale. two dollars—the soft swiff of bills.十四元, translated, syllables

lodging into the soft flesh of your throat. he smiles before he goes.

i dreamt of america. the real one. Mine. they promised i’d never be cold,

and i never was. it would be beautiful, hai mei. tell me when we’re there.

you bring sunflowers every sunday. you hope he’s warm.

Emily Tong, NJ, Bergan County Academies

*十四元 = 14 yuan (14¥)

*hai mei = A rare phrase in Mandarin Chinese

that signifies endearment for an individual.