Let it be known. We circled—
barefooted—the parking lot, searching
for our car, last seen by villagers to be ferrying
torsos across a river. No matter, the living do
what they know best. From this foreign shore
I now call street, I hand body parts to you
for wear: a father’s shoulder, a mother’s
back—the things we do for survival.
At home, everyone is missing a chest,
taken by a bullet tracing itself through
a new frontier, and I name it immigrant.
There, you wear your country’s skin well.
When the sun gives, you could hang it
alongside my wedding dress, but I am
a boy, and you looked into my face, bruised
with makeup, to remind me, so you don’t.
Though I am your son, it’s too easy to forget
how I ran from love, how the Chinese night
eats its simple men; how these streets
swallow cars whole. One thing is easy
to keep, your old language I use for poems
and pillow talk. Here’s one: the jade talismans
you brought over from the village have made
like a wishbone, and split itself home. Follow it,
but you can’t—your tires are slashed. You run,
but everywhere is made of streets, and everything
is slashed. Come back, we are in the parking lot
again, holding your son—stroking his cheek—
finding in his mouth the second half
of everything you’ve ever wanted.

The title is xīn chuántǒng, which means new tradition in Mandarin.

王潇 / Evan Wang was the first Youth Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and a 2024 National YoungArts Winner in poetry. His work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Journal, Poet Lore, The Harvard Advocate, and elsewhere, and was featured at and recognized by the White House, Button Poetry, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Contemporary, and Wawa Welcome America. He is working on a chapbook manuscript titled "Slow Burn."

Originally from Montreal, Fiona Ackerman is a painter living and working in Vancouver, BC. Since completing her BFA through Concordia and ECIAD, Fiona has exhibited internationally (Canada, USA, Europe, UK and Asia). She was longlisted for the Sobey Prize in 2015 and received an honourable mention for the Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture in 2009. Recent projects include murals in Vancouver, and a commissioned 10 minute video projection for the Facade Festival (Burrard Arts Foundation) which was projected onto the facade of the Vancouver Art Gallery.