Julie Choi
Poetry, oranges taste better in jeju
you live in the sky. dirt tethers your body to the
fields, to the off-kilter porch, to me, but your eyes
are tilted onto trains and oil-coated mechanisms
instead of damp earth and sticky oranges. i stare
at your back, thinking that it could be enough.
naive; you are fickle in the face of linearity, in the
mundane periphery of home. beneath dusk, you
tore the fallacy—rigor mortis—and i recalled our
unravelling youth in half-bitten oranges and salt.
in running against the tide, melon ichor staining
our fingers, sun inlaying our throats as i reached
for perennial blue—oh, all of it is so inherent.
sea on napes and dreams on lips. pithy secrets
and pulled bones. loving/leaving and coming/back.
i laughed in nuances of your tempo, conscious
but inert. you lived in the sky; i remember
Poetry, catechism
take your axe & hit every nail in sight.
pull strands out of your throat. you are unraveled.
you are unsung. you are open-ended
bodies superimposed on bodies. let me tell you.
the magpies killed all of the tigers for the fuck of it.
every last one. remember this
like you remember tight syllables & fickle touches.
let me tell you—exalt the naked pulse
instead of the creator. taste the uptake & the ending.
lacerate skin for any signs of god. consume
the skies like your rice cakes. avid mouth
full of lotuses. you never belonged in beauty.
you belonged to filmy distances & stained hands.
leave mortality out of benevolence. i told you
to remember. this is love in rebellion.
eat the buildings & savor the bricks on your tongue
until concrete melts into your crevices.
chip the paint for the entrails. snap the bones
under folds of muscle & ligament. remember
& trace your family line. end up at the tigers
Julie Choi is a writer based in Maryland. She is an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her works are published or forthcoming in Yīn Literary, Eunoia Review, and elsewhere. She is the Director of Creative Writing for TheFinePrint and strives to raise the voices of those who wish to be heard.