inspired by the story of my grandmother’s immigration, Bright Eyes and Steady Hands is about a woman who left for the US, denying her dream to become a writer for the plan her father laid out for her. Later in life, her daughter translates her poem about living as a young girl in the Philippines. The poem was spoken in my grandmother's native tongue before the country had standardized Tagalog into Filipino, making translation difficult as we worked together on rewriting the poems to fit both languages.