Nancy Tupper Ling and Eric Pinder

I Tell the Truth
Nancy Tupper Ling (2006-2007 Parnell Prize Winner)

a good mother wanted
her children to denounce her,
her Kuomintang ties,
her rightest secrets:

how she tucked dried plums
into her daughters’ pockets
when other children
went without,

how she stitched the Golden
Gate to her pillowcase,
Slept on its strong, burnished
beams and dreamed

of her sisters, their shoebox
houses tucked into America’s
hillsides. Gwo laih.
They call to her. Come over.

This was the only way.
If her children pounded
their fists, waved their red
flags, saluted the Chairman

as he passed by, the party
pledged honor to them.
At what cost? A tiny mother
in rice paddies: her feet,

swollen and muddied,
her prayer—may they forget
the words, their words,
which brought me here.


Signs of the Times
Eric Pinder

Imagine my surprise when I pushed the playback button on my home answering machine and heard a familiar voice: “Hello, this is George W. Bush...” Beep. That was the only message. Oddly, the President forgot to leave a number where I could call him back. more