Forced to leave home, but home
never leaves us. Wherever exile
takes us, we remain this body made
from the red earth of our island-
our ribs taken from its montes–
its breeze our breaths. We stand
with its palmeras. Our eyes hold
its blue-green sea. Waterfalls
echo in our ears. On our wrists,
jasmine. Our palms open, close
like its hibiscus to love, be loved.

We thrive wherever we remain
true to our lucha-the hustle
of our feet walking to work
as we must, our oily hands
fixing all the broken beauty
we must fix, our soiled hands
growing what we must grow,
or cutting what must be cut,
our backs carrying the weight
of our island’s sands, our pulse
its waves, our sweat the gossamer
dew and dust of its sunrises,
our voice the song of its sinsontes
and its son nested in our souls.

Wherever the world spins us,
home remains the island that
remains in us. Its sun still sets
in our eyes, its clouds stay still
above us, our hands still hold
its tepid rain. We’re still caught
under its net of stars, still listen to
its moon crooning above its dirt
roads. We’re its rivers, the hem
of its coast and lace of its sierras,
its valley windsongs, its vast seas
of green sugarcane fields. We’re
our island’s sweetness as bitter
as the taste of having to leave it.

Richard Blanco

Today is our last day skiing and snowboarding for this year. I woke up around 6:00 am, put dishes in the dishwasher, made a sandwich, and brewed a cup of coffee. I left the condo around 8:00 am. I snowboarded down Long John, but my legs hadn’t recovered. I took 45 minutes to snowboard down the green trail.

I went back to the condo around 9:00 am. The kids were up and playing on their digital devices. We had brunch and said goodbye to my brother-in-law and nephew. Around 10:30 am, we headed back to the mountains. My kids and I went back to Long John. One of Vương’s ski popped off when we got on the lift. The lifty handed to another skier behind us. I told Vương to ski with one foot when we get off the lift. He lifted his ski-free leg really high as we skied off the lift together. He looked so cute.

After Long John, Vương wanted a eight-dollar waffle as usual. We bought two so the four brothers could share. After that my wife drove Vương back to the condo to relax. I skied on the black terrains with Đạo, Đán, and Xuân. They were a bit icy, but fun. We did three runs on the three black trails that were opened.

After that we skied back to the main base to load our gears, snacks, and drinks so my wife could take them to the condo. I switched to snowboard, we went back up the lift, and skied and snowboarded back to our rental condo. We were done around 2:00 pm. My legs were too tired and I ran out of energy after skiing and snowboarding for six days.

The trip was definitely worthwhile. My wife and my brother-in-law could get off the chair lift themselves and skied on the green slope. Vương had a fantastic time even though he only skied one long trail a day. Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and Hân spent quality time together on the slopes and digital devices. I picked up snowboarding skills—early edge changes and knee steerings—I needed.

In retrospect, I learned snowboarding the wrong way. I tried to advanced from green slopes all the way to surviving double-black-diamond slopes, and yet I didn’t get the basic riding down. I had to go back to learn those quick turns. Thanks to Long John, I was able to accomplish what I needed to learn. Since I could already handle blue and black terrains, I had more confidence in my riding.

As we close out the season, I still have more techniques to learn next year, but I have reached my goal for learning snowboarding this year. Even though I still love skiing, I am glad that took on the challenge to learn a new sport. Although skiing and snowboarding share the same slopes, they are completely different sports. Switching from one to another requires rewiring my brain, but that’s the beauty of each sport and I like them both.

Đán, our second son, learned skiing, but decided to switch to snowboarding and he is doing good; therefore, he doesn’t want to switch back to skiing. Xuân, our third son, wanted to learn snowboarding this year with me. We got him his gears. We even signed him up for a full-day lesson, but he couldn’t make the switch. He has advanced in skiing; he doesn’t have the patience to learn snowboarding from the beginning. I was also in his situation, but I had the patience and determination to take myself on a new challenge.

Before I learned snowboarding, I heard the rivalry from both sides. Older skiers dissed snowboarding and younger snowboarders dissed skiing. Having learned both sports, I still have my reservations. Ski boots are still a pain to wear and strapping up snowboard binding every time is also annoying, but I have embraced them both. I like switching between them and I will keep up with both sports for as long as I can. I met more skiers than snowboarder in their 70s. I wonder if I will be able to ski or snowboard when I reach 70.

This trip has been fantastic. Mad props to my wife for making it happened. She is always my rock. I love her so much for showering me with all these luxuries. I do not take these privileges for granted. These sports aren’t cheap to get into, but they are worthwhile if we devoted our time into them as a family. I hope my kids will appreciate them when they grow older later.

There’s not much I can say.

We’re all going to die.
That didn’t come out right.

“I’m doomed,” is so melodramatic.
“I’m so doomed” is cutesy.

“I’m in trouble”
sounds like a confession
on an old-time cop show.

“We’re in trouble now,” sounds like
we’re about to be sent
to the vice-principal—

that loser!

He’d never understand.

Rae Armantrout

I headed over the mountains around 7:50 am before the lifts open at 8:00 am. I went to Long John trying to learn carving on snowboard. I didn’t do too well. I tried on the blue run, but I ended up doing short turns and knee steerings. I hit the blue trails twice before the rest of the family came over.

I switched to ski to take Long John with Vương. He let me use the harness. He skied well with the strings. I only held him close to me on steeper slopes. We made it down to the main base and my legs were burning. I had to take a break.

After lunch I went over to the discovery area to teach my wife and her brother skiing. I was able to get them to ski off the lift on their own. They still need to learn their turns, but they are getting there.

We wrapped up around 3:30 pm. I switched back to snowboarding and took on the blue slopes. I was able to take the last lift at 3:50 pm. I took Long John home and I was the only one on the entire mountain. It was nice to be able to snowboard back to the condo.

I am completely exhausted, but I loved every moment of it. What more can I say? I love skiing and snowboarding.

Do you ever get bored while urinating?

Are your dreams full of impassioned speeches which later appear nonsensical?

Do you recognize the speakers?

Do you feel they are making a fool of you?

What is the true meaning of the word fool?

Is a wind blowing from heaven?

Do you believe your dreams are previews of the afterlife or world to come?

When you hear someone express a thought which you have also entertained, does this make you feel a) reassured, b) bored or c) threatened?

Do you enjoy reflections? If so, did your mother mimic your facial expressions when you were an infant?

Do floor lamps reflected in windowpanes
resemble distant settlements?

Have you been pre-approved?

Rae Armantrout

My wife’s brother and his son joined us last night. I woke early and hit the mountains around 8:30 am. The lift opened at 9:00 am and the line was longer than previous days.

I continued to work on early edge changes. I also moved on to the blue terrains and had lots of fun. I wanted to incorporate carving into my turns, but I am not quite there yet.

Around 10:30 am, the rest of the family arrived. I switched to ski to take Vương on Long John. Skiing with him made to switch to pizza. Now I am having a hard time switching back to parallel. While skiing down Long John, I saw my nephew skiing backward. I challenged Đạo, Xuân, and my nephew to backward skiing. I also ready switch back to snowboarding.

Today is our fourth day at Mount Snow and I am exhausted. The legs are giving out at the end of the day, but I always get up the next day and do it again. I love skiing and snowboarding life.

If I open my chest
Tear the flesh
Break the bone
Untangle the blood vessels
Dismantle the rib cage
And pull out the beat from the heart
I am positive
That I will find your name buried under the deep tissue of my heart

I have no clue why the feelings hold on to something so dead My pride has been wrangling
My rib cage
To get to the heart to shake it
To wake it the fuck up

I don’t know if this will be the last poem I write about you
But it will feel good when I look at it
And laugh

To know that the feelings that I once had
Are nothing but words on a sheet of paper

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

I woke up around 7:00 am and threw bacons in the oven for breakfast. I made myself a ham, bacons, eggs, and cheese sandwich. I went over to the resort around 8:30 am. Around 8:50 am, I stood in line with a handful of senior skiers. I was the only early snowboarder.

I determined to learn short turns and knee steerings on snowboard. I hit one green and one blue terrain. I headed back around 10:00 am to pick up everyone. We didn’t leave the condo until 11:00 am. When we arrived, Vương wanted to take the bubble lift so I skied with him on Long John. Pizzing all the way down with him still burned my legs.

We got back down at noon. We took a break and it started to rain. Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and I went back on the lift to ski in the rain. With heavy fog and light rain, I suggested we take it easy on the green terrain. It was quite an experience skiing in the rain.

Around 2:00 pm, my wife took the younger boys home to go swimming. I went back up with the older boys, but they wanted to hit the blue terrains. I stuck with Long John to learn short turns and knee steerings on snowboard and I made some progress. I longer pivoted my back foot; therefore, my ride was much smoother. I also were able to steer with my knees. I practiced three runs on Long John. At 3:45 pm, I decided to hit one more time before the lift closed. When I got on the lift, it started to rain. I was the only one left on the green terrain. I snowboarded in the rain and it was quite an experience. Today was a great day.

I am ashamed to confess that I had to read Truyện Kiều in English in order to understand Nguyễn Du’s epic poem—thanks to the skillful translation from Vương Thanh. I tried to read Vietnamese several times, but I gave up on the poetic language. Now that I know the story, I will go back to read Vietnamese.

You can read both the original version as well as the English translation right on a sample webpage I designed to showcase Vietnamese typography. I took 6,508 lines of poetry (Vietnamese and English) and put them all in one single webpage. That is the power of the web. I read it on my iPhone, but you can read it on any of your favorite device.

September 3rd
Today, I killed someone
I took the high school girl I used to be
To the back of the playground
And I hung her with the chains from the swings
That your emotions and I used to dangle on
Everyone will say that I killed her, but I think I saved her life…

Tarriona “Tank” Ball