(Inspired by “What I Believe” by Jacqueline Woodson)

I believe teriyaki chicken with rice tastes better than anything.
I believe my grandma agreed.
I believe God whispered to her our family teriyaki sauce recipe.
I believe my father taught the secret to me
to continue her legacy.

I believe I will continue her legacy
by clothing every meat I eat
with sweet teriyaki.

I believe my wife dislikes sweet meat.
I believe that does not matter to me.
I believe that does not matter to her either.

I believe our future children might not like it either.
I believe my wife and I will dress their meat
with teriyaki sauce anyway.
I believe my children will eat
teriyaki chicken with rice anyway.

I believe, if they like it,
they might even learn the recipe
and then forget it
after eating too much McDonald’s or Wendy’s.

I believe, despite this possibility,
they will still carry my grandma and father’s legacy.
I believe they will even honour my wife and me

because

I believe they will see, just like anybody,
that family is fitted
with so much more meaning
than chicken and rice
in sweet teriyaki.

Caleb Delos-Santos (he/him) is an English graduate student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Throughout his four years of writing, Caleb has published poetry with nearly twenty literary magazines, including North Dakota Quarterly and the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism, and most recently released his first two poetry collections, A Poet’s Perspective (2022) and Once One Discovers Love (2023). Caleb also won the 2022 Esselstrom Writing Prize and the West Wind Literary Magazine’s 2023 Best in Genre Award for his nonfiction. Today, Caleb teaches English 101 as a teaching assistant and dreams of a successful writing and teaching career.