Candy Keeps An Island Alive
Breia Gore Every December, my uncle pops rice paper candies in my palm.
They barely survive the voyage to mouth. I can’t explain
how the heat from my supplicate hands boil its sugary coat.
When it gets to my mouth,
lingers like an island, saliva aquamarine,
pacific ocean tongue. Sucks out the gummy bits.
They cross miles and miles for me to digest, take the plastic out
of the ground and crumple, sounds like a song.
This is why I wear charms and keep a birthright in black hair,
be the flour in the pandesal, the sweet ensaymada,
fathers kimchi, I take it upon myself.
This candy sends me to sugary tombstone where I indulge
for a second, imagine this is what
their dirt taste like and how
could America taste better than this?