Jiwon Choi: Pick of the Week (x2) [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Memoir Mori

 

In Part One, I will introduce my mother, butcher-in-chief

feasting on her young, bones and gristle, sauté

and sizzle with toothsome glee. Day-old tabloid soup

moving you on to

Part Two where I make my escape to a liberal arts college

and become afflicted with a condition known as poetry-writing

where I Ouija-board Plath nightly for instruction on restitution

and virgin suicides.

In Part Three I seek solace in philosophy (I fuck

therefore I am) also known as impersonating Freudian slips:

you’re not a family until you’re a tragedy.

How to begin Part Four?

Cue the tall, blond Tourette’s syndrome, a foolish moth

trapped inside my self-loathing. I pull his wings right off.

Must I make meaning of my stint at the 7-Eleven roasting wieners

for pimply boys seeking nirvana in Hot Pockets and Ding Dongs?

If I leave salvation unwritten, will it come in?

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Let’s Go Out Tonight

 

Charging from one neck of the woods to another

the cab driver pushes our chariot from one pothole to another

over patches of pigeons while the radio bleeds the blues

“Is that Blind Lemon?” I ask

“Lightnin’ Hopkins,” he says

“But Blind Lemon liked Hopkins to play with him sometimes,” I add

“How come you know about that?” he turns to look at me

He is an older black man, forehead furrowed with Socrates’s worries

“I like the blues,” I reply

By the time we pull up to the curb John Lee Hooker is cajoling

“Let’s go out tonight!”

so I pay my fare and do just that.

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Jiwon Choi is a poet, teacher, and urban gardener.  She teaches preschool at the Educational Alliance, a multi-generational non-profit located on the Lower East Side of NYC.  She is a long-time gardener and coordinator for the Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden located near downtown Brooklyn. She is also a poetry editor for Typehouse Literary Magazine. Jiwon is the author of One Daughter is Worth Ten Sons, published by Hanging Loose Press. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.  

Comments

[Bob Hershon]

I'm happy to say that Jiwon's second book, I USED TO BE KOREAN, will be published by Hanging Loose Press in 2021.

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

These are outstanding, irreverent, image-breaking, roaring disses, and lyrical to foot and boot. Thank you Jiwon. And thanks to you Terence and Hanging Loose for enabling this voice to roar.

[Terence Winch]

That's very good news.

[Terence Winch]

Thank you, mon ami. I thought you might like her work.

[Karen Sagstetter]

I am smiling and re-reading these wonderful poems. thank you

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you liked them, Karen.

[lally]

thank you for posting, now on my list of top favorite poets

[grace cavalieri]

what a surprising splash of fresh good stuff

[Terence Winch]

You've always had good taste in poetry.

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you like them, Grace.

[Lynne Dreyer]

If I leave salvation unwritten, will it come in? great line, great poems.

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you think so, Lynne. Thanks for your comment.