the day after
New Year’s decorations go up
along the way
to the station
outside shops
at gates
branches of pine
welcome good fortune.
The peace doll sits on top of
postal cards stacked
ready for addressing
New Year’s wishing.
I have my NASA pen!
OLD ROUTINE WITH CHANGES
I know the routine of this time of year
with Obaachan and Jiichan
cleaning from rafters to tatami
from soles to pedals
from garden stones to gate.
This year Jiichan will rest.
This year Obaachan lets Mom
and me
help prepare food
to last the first three days of the new year.
Papa arrives in a taxi
with our electric carpet rolled and
hanging out the window.
He vacuums the tatami in Great-Grandfather’s room,
rolls out the carpet, and plugs it in.
Our futons will be warmer at night.
Obaachan places my favorite New Year’s food,
candied chestnuts with sweet potatoes,
along with other not-so-favorite food (dried sardines)
in lacquer boxes decorated with golden
plum blossom, bamboo, and pine,
the luckiest combination.
Looks like
sounds like
feels like
a happy home.
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2001
Three days of
watching TV (screened for Jiichan)
feasting
receiving greeting cards
begins with
the Red and White Song Battle on TV,
noodles at midnight,
the shrine bell gong on TV,
money envelopes (small change this year),
and
the first dream of the new year.
A dream hopefully of
an eggplant, a hawk, or Mount Fuji.
All three is the luckiest dream.
Jiichan and I are lucky already;
our favorite singers, the white team,
won the song battle.
BROKEN HEARTS
TV and the newspaper
show us
the fallen towers
the hollow field
the gaping war department—
the rubble
the scars
on millions of hearts.
It’s difficult to screen everything for Jiichan
until his heart is strong again.
LOOKING BACK
I show Mom and Papa the grade paper.
and they congratulate me on Teacher’s comments:
Ema worked hard
and improved.
After hearing the Masa story
Papa says he agrees with Mom,
we must talk to Teacher,
Masa, and his mother
after the holiday
and says,
“Bullies need to know they are seen.”
I agree.
But I am not looking forward to it.
AND AHEAD
The new year is already here
when Nana calls with spring visit plans.
I tell Grandpa Bob I don’t remember
my new year’s first dream.
He tells me
no matter what
New Year’s is a time to think about
possibilities,
beginning again,
or starting something new.
“Think with ‘future hope’ in mind,” he says.
I can hear him smiling
and later, feasting,
Jiichan raises a slice of lotus root to his eye
squints through one of the holes
and says,
“I see a better year ahead.”
He does this every new year, but this year
he is looking at Miki sleeping on a cushion.
TRADITIONAL SECOND-DAY TASK
Papa watches over me
while I prepare
paper
brush
inkstone
ink stick, and
water pot
poto poto
su su su
against the stone
I rub stick into water into ink.
With the school practice paper as a guide
stroke by stroke
BRIGHT HEART
appears on the paper.
I hang it to dry
next to a scroll of painted sparrows.
The first day back at school,
we will hang this message
in the hallway
to remind us
to polish our hearts
with kindness toward one another.
BRIGHTER HEARTS
I put the peace doll
on top of the TV
to remind us
a new year
a new beginning
a new chance has come
to try better
to do better
to be better.
While listening to the story of the doll,
Jiichan’s eyes sparkle.
JANUARY 2, 2002
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gratitude to Daddy, Carol Baker, Mrs. Eldridge and Mr. Richard Jenkins, Nancy Kirwan Rinehart, and Jan Oppie for early writing encouragement; SCBWI-Japan, Kent Brown and The Highlights Foundation, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Sonya Sones, and Linda Oatman High for guidance; the Highlights Novel in Verse Sisterhood, especially Debra Rook, Carol Coven Grannick, Liz Heywood, Kathy Mirkin, and Sandra Armistead Havriluk for encouragement and guidance; Yoko Yoshizawa, Naomi Kojima, Gerri Sorrells, Chiyo Hayashi, and the Chikamatsu family for clarity.
Thank you Holly McGhee for giving this story a chance, nuturing it, and finding it a home. Thank you, Courtney Stevenson. And to Caitlyn Dlouhy, who gave this story a place in the world along with Sonia Chaghatzbanian, Clare McGlade, and Elizabeth Blake-Linn at Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, Atheneum, my deepest gratitude and admiration.
ANNIE DONWERTH-CHIKAMATSU greets Mt. Fuji each day despite the obstructed view from her roof garden. Her work has been published in Hunger Mountain, Highlights, Skipping Stones, YARN, and other magazines. She received a grant from the Highlights Foundation to attend the Chautauqua workshop in 2009. Somewhere Among won the 2013 Writers’ League of Texas manuscript contest in the middle-grade category and is her debut novel.
A CAITLYN DLOUHY BOOK
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster • New York
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