For my cousins

Photography by Michelle Li, staff writer.

The best water we had was in China. Back then, the sun 

was a god and we starved under him—the bruises bright 

on four pairs of knees when we leaned over the kitchen counter, 

and yilao touched the side of the old boiler gently: 

she would not allow us to drink anything cold like the Americans. 

Afterwards, it trickled into porcelain rice bowls slightly chipped

at the rim, sloshed in our mouths—and we were told 

to slow down: excess of anything will kill you, my darlings;

she loved us and wanted us to live forever.

I know that something that doesn’t end cannot be beautiful;

but today, the water pitcher was warm and the sun opened itself

over the stalled Pacific miles away. In America, I poured myself a bowl and it 

wetted my mouth; my lips grazed the uneven porcelain, the water pinked—

I thought of home silently & could have sworn it was beautiful.

yilao: Chinese for great aunt

Michelle Li has been nationally recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing and the Rising Voices Awards. She is an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop and her work has been published in Blue Marble, Masque and Spectacle, and Lumina Journal. She also edits for The Dawn Review. In addition, she plays violin and piano and loves Rachmaninoff and Sylvia Plath. You can find her website at michelleli.carrd.co.