SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.
We had a large family dinner two years ago, and I met new relatives. My aunt’s sister, teaching at her hometown college. The little brother of my grandpa, owner of sprawling farmland.
I learned their names, tried to pronounce them, but it was so hard to stay focused. I was starving.
My grandma’s sister—the family’s oldest—she was there, too. Her brothers and sisters all passed away, except my grandma. She lost her husband twenty years ago, once champion swimmers together. After finishing the bowl of rice, I began observing.
It was the second or third time I’d met her. She looked just like my grandma, hair short and curly. Wrinkles unfolding from the ends of her eyes. And her hands. Like those crumpled medical history forms covering her bones. All those crisp veins lining— could I redraw the lines, once they faded?
When everyone was full, she hugged me. Her grey sweater nesting my hair, I hugged her back. Her hair held cooked rice—nothing special, but it was.
I didn’t have her number, but often she swam from my grandma’s phone. Her voice crisp like rain on the kitchen windows.
I thought we would see each other again.
But next spring, my grandma lost her sister, queen of rice. Everyone came to the funeral, but I felt like an outsider. The wind covered the pool in petals.
April was full of rain and tears. I wasn’t sure if I needed to cry. Outside, a hurricane murmuring in the distance—I couldn’t escape. So instead I watched my grandma blur from her body into her sister’s, then back again.
Minnie Wu is a high school sophomore at The Pennington School. Her poetry and prose have been previously published in Blue Marble Review, Teen Ink, and Pennyroyal, among other literary magazines. In the 2022 and 2023 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Minnie was recognized as a Gold Key recipient and a Gold Medalist for her poetry and photography. She is an alumna of Iowa Young Writers’ Studio Summer Residential Program.
