Return
New Albany, OH
2025, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
when my last exhale leaves my wrinkled body, I want to be
among the rocks in the forest where I grew up
tripping over roots and braving the rusted swings
or floating in Hanauma Bay, where rainbows darted
and I choked on seawater, salt in my nose but I promised myself that
here, plumeria around my sun-kissed neck, my heart would dance ma kai,
roaring over plastic ghosts. And when my knee scraped blue rice coral,
I prayed it would scar to remember the bay’s fragile power and
my rapacious need to escape my flesh, to lose myself in lani.
or slipping on snow patches littering the Rockies,
though Colorado wasn’t just Quaking Aspen and struggling up the tundra,
twelve thousand feet above the tides, purple saxifrage glaring at me,
a poor excuse for the gems who wrestled narrow oxygen–
Colorado is where I pinched my hat, skipping rocks, the water
my sweet soprano, rippling and bending and breaking when my hand
cupped the frigid surface, salve on my heart, filling my lonely serenade
or crying in Dolores up at 19th because San Francisco
isn’t the matcha lattes and Octavia casarecce and gentle Waymos but it’s
closing my eyes on my sister’s checkered picnic blanket, the Dolo grass
just barley cushioning my back as the California dirt bites into my bones,
and I let it seep into the crevices of my heart because
SF is the palm trees swaying in the sunshine breeze,
the hum of kite-flying and dreamy proposals and pop songs, alive
or even wandering through my dull and flat hometown, but I’d forgotten
rolling winterberry between my fingers in carnelian summer,
sinking my teeth into September Melrose,
catching the moon peeking at the sun, suspended
between desire and duty, love and law, blushing past its arduous night shift,
drawn to daylight’s careless beauty, shadowed by sustenance–
anywhere far from chipped screen protectors and flames and empty tirades
from hiding behind N95 and still coughing up Beijing smog
Let me be a whisper in this Earth, cradled in her weathered arms,
her splintered fingers wiping my tears as I fade into dusty dawn.
Perhaps I am greedy, clinging to Earth’s candid breath though I couldn’t stop
us from stealing it– selfish indeed, her love woefully unrequited.
Translations:
ma kai – toward the sea
lani – heaven
Reflection
Having grown up in a family that has consistently emphasized the importance of nature, this year’s prompt really spoke to me, giving me a great opportunity to express how special nature has been in my life. I explored this year’s prompt primarily through the lens of Healthy Environments, Healthy Humans, though I also touched on Concrete Jungle. From hiking since I was 2 years old, to traveling to various National Parks, to experiencing firsthand the healing power of nature, I have appreciated the outdoors for as long as I can remember, and I’m greatly inspired by and wanted to showcase nature’s resilience, tranquility, and beauty. In highlighting incredible aspects of nature and then contrasting that to humans’ damage to the planet, I hope that this piece will encourage readers to reciprocate the love and healing that nature provides by working to protect the Earth.