Number One Pizza In America

Artwork by Vicky Wang, staff artist

The best slice of pizza I ever had was

in the backseat of a gray Honda

at Manhattan Beach,

when night fell before my sister and I had time to

cup the sunset in our hands,

ocean blinking from crimson

to black. My dad was still wearing his business suit,

and he reeked of exhaustion, like

beer and bar soap.

My mom ran her tongue over lipstick-stained teeth

and talked about how young she had been

during the summer she spent on the beaches of Murano.

My sister asked, How come, Daddy,

how come a beach

in California is named after Manhattan?

We dreamt of living

in Manhattan, in a city theatrical enough

to prevent us from missing the sun.

But I was just happy that a Taylor Swift song

was finally playing on the radio

and that I knew the words,

so I could whisper it quietly enough

to hear my voice in my skull (instead of

in my ears)

while we ate pizza

at a curb,

a thousand miles away from

each other. We will forever

be in different continents,

facing outward to the oceans we can see

through the car windows.

---

Catherine Park is a senior at the Bergen County Academies in New Jersey. high school newspaper. She is a National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medalist and a recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Awards in Arts Education and has earned recognition from the Live Poets Society of NJ. Her work is forthcoming in Aerie International. Besides poetry, her passions include politics, international affairs, and advocacy, and she holds a strong interest in various social and cultural issues of the 21st century. In her free time, she enjoys reading (everything from news articles to YA novels), listening to lo-fi music, and watching Netflix documentaries.

Vicky Wang is a junior from Jericho, New York. She loves photography, design, and music. Her passion for design has helped earned her team a chance to compete at state level competitions. She also loves photography and likes to spend time snapping photos of her setting. When she is not creating, Vicky loves playing badminton, catching up on dramas, and of course watching animal videos until 3 am.