N30B Winners

Carlina Duan, First Place winner in the 2017 Narrative 30 Below Contest, is the author of the poetry collection I Wore My Blackest Hair (2017). She earned a BA from the University of Michigan and an MFA in poetry from Vanderbilt University (2019). She lives in Nashville.


FIRST PLACE WINNER


Rein

by Carlina Duan

my baba sits in a midwest
garage with the hood propped

open. blue coolant in a bottle.
small puttering of mice.


one time, yeye died
& I couldn’t get him


back. could only watch
the metal twitch, the jumper


cables moan. I wanted
to eat fish. I wanted


a quick fix. one
time yeye died


& my baba tried
to commit a car


to his hands, spun the wheel
hard, but it wouldn’t


listen. I made baba a cup
of kool-aid. he brought


the sugar to his mouth.
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