Claudia Ann Seaman Award
A Sestina For Us
Lian Wang
Mercersburg, PA (via Hong Kong/Beijing)
Mercersburg Academy
Poetry
Whispers and baby steps we
Cradle our hearts of glass
Pivot on silken line
We tumble parcels drop
Lunge to slash at the roots
Surged out we pick
Up the broken shards and pick
At the warded vaults we
Tape our roots
Onto brittled glass
Stitch the pieces every drop
Our blood and sweat on the line
Write between the lines
They said to pick
Our words paint the backdrop
Grey and our skin sickly like we
Are expected to clink our glasses
Smile and root
For them to save us plant our roots
In neat lines
Seal the glass
Bulletproof and pick
Out the battle scars we
Proudly wear when we drop
Down our youths survive the drop
And claw up our roots
Rise from the dirt we
Don’t wait in line
To pick
Our fights watch behind glass
So clean your glasses
Your voices drop
To the scratch of paper and toothpick
Trace your roots
Down your heart’s line
Cause tonight it’s us, yes we
EDITORIAL PRAISE
Here, the sestina, typically an older, classic form, is an anthem for youth. I want to shout it from a rooftop to a crowd of young below. Its swinging and quick rhythm matches the urgency of those coming of age. This is a poem for us, the title declares. It’s right. This poem is ours, and we are glad to have it.
Lian Wang is from Hong Kong and Beijing, China. She attends Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania, where she will graduate in 2021. She enjoys reading and dancing, and she is the literary Editor-in-Chief for her school’s arts and literary publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR