"The Dream of a Lacquer Box" illustrates the objects in the lacquer box that hold both the culture and ancestry of the speaker's nationality. The items that the speaker describes transition from historic to more modern before the reader reaches the conclusion that she wishes to give anything related to her culture to her daughter. In the hopes of dreaming the box into existence, the author also then wishes that her heart were satisfied with her childhood and the items that she still possesses.

Kimiko Hahn is the author of 10 books of poetry and was born in Mount Kisco, New York. She earned a BA from the University of Iowa and an MA in Japanese literature from Columbia University. She is the winner of the Pen/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the American Book Award among many others. Her work has been associated with the mode of "contemporary zuihitsu" in the hopes of remaining honest to the reader.