2018 Fall Contest: Poet’s Choice, 1st Place Winner– Robin Rosen Chang (poetry, ’18)

Congratulations to Robin Rosen Chang (poetry, ’18) for winning first place in the Poet’s Choice category of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall 2018 Contest. Below, an excerpt from her winning poem, “Dream: At the Beach.”

Dream: At the Beach

They were sitting at the edge of the ocean, my mother and Eve, digging for mole crabs. Amphipods. They’re prehistoric, my mom says, like horseshoe crabs. Look at their exoskeletons. Like little armored torpedoes. Or drills. Their legs tunnel them backwards into the sand.

Eve catches one, holds it between her finger and thumb, examines its tiny alien face. Its eyes. Planted at the end of two stalky appendages, next to their antennae, my mother said, trying to teach Eve, like she’d done with my kids and me, unaware Eve already knows.

Watch out for gulls! When I was still married, one tried to steal a fish right from my husband’s hand. Then they’re looking for tiny coquina clams, shiny pink and purplish-gray ones, each with its tiny muscled foot burrowing it, before the next wave. […continue reading here]