Kate Choi
Poetry, National Confessional
I learned my history through English-dubbed
YouTube videos. During lunch breaks, my mother
asked me the names of massacres, unaware I’d
left my seat halfway through. I let her feed me
kimchi while I snuck sips of Starbucks, a budding
sweet tooth swelling into my gums.
The teachers handed us hibiscus, told us hold
the line: I only saw roses. My headphones played Kiss
while skirts ballooned mid-fall. Read Kerouac
while bodies burst like stars. Replied to questions of
Korea with: Why the hell are you asking
me? The first poem I wrote my country
was critique. Ask anybody: the American
Dream infects those adjacent. K-Dramas are the
worst, I say, while my movie shamans are
slaughtered with a Smith & Wesson & the salvational
soldier takes his prize to bed. So, a confession:
Call my language 한국어 & I will reply in Korean.
Kate Choi is a creative writer from Seoul, South Korea. An alumna of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop, and Adroit Summer Mentorship, her work is published or forthcoming in Rust & Moth, ONEART, The SHORE Poetry, manywor(l)ds, and more. Her work has been recognized by the Marginalia Poetry Contest, the NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing, Polyphony Lit, and Aster Lit. She works as a poetry reader for Ploughshares and wildscape. You can find her online at https://katechoi.carrd.co/