% _

after Victoria Chang

妈妈one dollar eyelinerone dollar eyeliner — died august 18th, 2015.

a day before 我们i我们 left for college, to begin all over.

no more quarters collected and kept, clinking

in a piggy bank for ice cream days

and bigger eyes for cheap. as if pretty could be bought

for a penny. a flimsy mask that fades away,

or is donned to fool another girl.

we 回到leftleft the same way we came, penniless

and pouting. they say 你的a girl'sa girl's power

is in that — her pout or her tears.

i cried the whole plane ride over, when i was

just three. my eyes held so little

of 家乡the worldthe world then. thought the value

of a dollar was a blue bell ice cream scoop

or my mother's tip, the difference being

which way her mouth turned. never sure

if we survived, if we could afford more

than one smile 在一起。between us.between us.