Iris A. Law is the author of the chapbook PERIODICITY (Finishing Line Press, 2013). She is a Kundiman fellow and was a finalist for the NER Emerging Writers Award in 2023. Her work has been published in THEY RISE LIKE A WAVE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN POETS (Blue Oak, 2022) and A FACE TO MEET THE FACES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY PERSONA POETRY (U of Akron, 2012) and has appeared in journals such as the Georgia Review, the New England Review, and Waxwing. In 2009, Iris cofounded Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry, which she edited until its closure in 2022.

KUNDIMAN 20TH ANNIVERSARY POETRY PORTFOLIO

Examen in San Francisco

By IRIS A. LAW

In the coffee shop, unctuous with light, I wait / for the syrup to settle in my gut.