it’ll be fun she pushes my

forearm

well okay I say even though

my hands are shaking

she goes down first

her hands by her side

bike zigzagging

then she lifts her arms up

like an eagle

she stops at the bottom and

waves

my turn

I breathe in deeply and

close my eyes imagine

that I am about to hit a tennis ball

I start pedaling and slowly

take my hands off the bars

the bike is so wobbly

I think I’m going to fall off

I lift my hands into

the air the wind tries to stop me

but I go faster and

faster the bike steadies

this is what

it means to fly

Annie is jumping up

and down clapping

I nearly hit her

as I pass her

I am so

proud

there is

confetti

exploding

inside

me

Focus

When I get home

I tell my mom about

the tennis team

and how maybe I should

try out

tennis is a waste

of time

she says with her back

turned

she’s cooking and

all I can hear are

vegetables screaming

in the pan

focus on your schoolwork

it’s not good to copy

Americans

too much sports

I feel a seed of anger

in my stomach

and I want so badly to

say something back

to yell something back

but the phone rings and

the seed in my

stomach stays

shut

Hair Dream #1

In my dream, Clara’s hair wraps around the house, crawls into the windows. The hair suffocates me. I can’t breathe. I want to cut the hair into thousands of little pieces. Then I am on the edge of a waterfall of hair. I am in a boat about to fall down. I wonder if the hair will make a splashing noise when I fall. I wonder if I will break into a thousand pieces like confetti.

Clue Collecting

On a Friday with no school

Annie convinces me

to bike the two miles to

find the wig

we know we’ll get in big

trouble if anyone finds out

it’s too far and

there’s a busy road

bits of leftover snow rest at

the side of

the road and look like

big dirty teeth

I wish I had paid more

attention to the school bus route

luckily Annie is good with

directions and only gets us

lost four times

we must look funny

two Chinese American girls

riding on the side of

the road at the end of winter

sometimes a car honks a long

honk so the sound moves from

behind us and doesn’t stop

until it is far ahead like

a long string

hopefully no one will

recognize us

my bike zig

zags like my

heart

Bushes

When we finally get to school

we both breathe out deeply

I show Annie where I think

Josh and Steve pointed to but

I’m not

sure anymore

all the bushes look

the same

why do they all

have to be so green

these bushes are

stubborn and greedy