This selection, chosen by guest editor Samantha Duncan, is from She Has Dreamt Again of Water by Stephanie Niu, released by Diode Editions in 2022.
Ya Li
Before I leave for the airport, my father gives me two pears. He has learned to fly: pears are better than water, will pass through security and keep me full. These are the same kind he brought on a flight home, sixteen hours, the year he returned to his village to find his mother nearly blind. Rocklike, unbruised. He reminds me to eat, checks the pears in their plastic bag, the muscled fruit harder than Bartlett flesh. On the plane I take one from its foam web and taste the yellow sandpaper skin, the sharp crunch of water. Bite the gritted meat whole and listen to my father. I eat until I am full.
Stephanie Niu is a poet and author of She Has Dreamt Again of Water, winner of the 2021 Diode Chapbook Prize. She received her degrees in symbolic systems and computer science from Stanford University. Her poems have appeared in Southeast Review, Poets Readings the News, Breakwater Review, and Storm Cellar, as well as scientific collaborations including the 11th Annual St. Louis River Summit. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Study/Research Award for work on decolonizing historical narratives through digital techniques, including podcast production, map-making, and digital visualization. She currently lives on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.
Samantha Duncan is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Playing One on TV (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2018) and The Birth Creatures (Agape Editions, 2016), and her work has appeared in BOAAT, SWWIM, Meridian, and The Pinch. She lives in Houston.
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