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Yoonsuh Kim
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Grandfather as a Foot Binder
My grandfather eats the eyeball first, pachinko pearl
pinballed by a fish-oiled epiglottis, throat coaxing
shadows into waves. His gaping mouth sits stagnant
in the living room, whispers avian, infantile, molars
tilted inward. I bow reed-like, touch him head-to-head,
avoid his tonsils fish-bone needled, cartilage ulcered
into a swollen stomach, I am blind until he swallows.
The man at the grocery shouts fishmonger, fingers molting
feathered. Eyes elliptical, he lifts two scaled stomachs
swollen to sip the sky. Against my eyelids, veins burnt
bright, I see him. Pale neck swaying, silver tongues
slip down esophagus. Spit-slick breath arcing over
my shoulders, when I peel my lids unfolded, the sun
turns its eyes away. Under half-light, he descales, fingers
tip-toed across fish ripped spineless. Bloated body floats
in graying water, corpselike, a time-smoothed skipping stone.
Watch my grandfather eat, teeth cartilage cordoned, muted
pupil projecting, these fish taste of ignorance. Years ago,
my grandfather awoke, dreaming of China
aching tongue bitten raw, metallic taste
weighted coin-like, shoulders migration-stretched, throat fixed
to gulp gold. But some birds are built to stand native.
Here, herons are water-moored, and fish means prosperity
in China, anyway. Boy, consume a woman lily-footed,
fishtail standing. Stabbed through pupil and stomached whole,
married with the promise to only run as far as birds can fly. Next
August, a man will walk his legs, whittled skeletal, across my retina.
When I smile at him, he smiles back, gums bare, molars flashing,
bone flossed. The light reflects off my vertebrae until I melt
scaled. Femurs folded A-frame, he whistles heron. Girl, do you know
how to run? Scrawled on the co-ed bathroom wall: to screw is to
swallow. So we lay, embalmed fish leather, twinned tails bloating.
fins splaying kites across market ice, summer sun harpooned,
headless, blind at consumption.
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Yoonsuh Kim is a poet based in New York. Her work has been recognized by Hollins University, Smith College, and others. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Rigorous Magazine, Cargoes, and others.