"You Will Be Golden" by Samantha Gardner

You Will Be Golden

Your skin is so decadent.
We all bite your cheeks.
You’re an orange marmalade French Madeleine.

You are loved. You know it.
You dance in pink butterflies.
Over the rocks and mossy homes to the overlook of the Atlantic.

You are not the family name.
You put a blanket over the shivering dog in your winter coat.
The world is grace for you. The chickens all bite your grain.
You are the sun in a Hemingway novel.
You draw your summer blue eyes in August.
“Their shade is the ocean.”
You call it a metaphor. You’re smart.

You are the fireplace in the cove of the Long Island Sound.
Crackling red and white and blue.
You will spin around the kitchen,
You will see your father’s whiskey glass in his December hands, fair, callused, bronzy, and
You will see your mother in a gray plaid scarf and her silver reading glasses at the counter and
You will shine in your sequin princess flats, and we will see you and
You will be golden.

Samantha Gardner

Samantha Gardner is a young writer based in Los Angeles. She is a student of Brendan Constantine and a graduate of the Young Women's Leadership Institute Creative Writing pre-college program at Barnard College. Her work can be found in the Windward School Literary Magazine and as a recipient of the national Eber Wein's Honors Poetry Prize 2023 for her poem “I Wish I Lived in the City.”

Headshot: Daniel Elbaz

Photo Credit: Staff