I Choose The Bear

By: Hillary Phan

You think I don’t know

But I can see it in your eyes

When you look at me,

When you smile,

All I see is teeth

I am bared

Before you

Even when I have barr-

Icaded my door against you

You look at me now

Like i am your least favorite

Cup of tea

Gone cold.

Fluorescent lights overhead,

I was a child in a grocery store

And dad,

I think you have lost me

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Hillary Phan is a Vietnamese-American poet and high school senior in Scottsdale, Arizona. She has been featured as an Honoree for Diverse Verse’s “Poems for Hope High School Poetry Contest” for her poem “My Mother’s Lips, My Father’s Tongue” and has also received distinc-tions for her poem “Ricky” and essay “Pinched Potatoes” from the 2025 National Scholastic Art & Writing Competition. She is planning to study on a Pre-Medical track in college with a minor in Creative Writing.