self-portrait as seoul
Jimin Lee
self-portrait as seoul
open the gwanghwamun gates of my mouth / part my red-blue lips / my teeth spell hangeul & english / my tongue often confuses them / swallows them whole / my esophagus is a rainbow hanbok sleeve leading to my stomach / a ceramic jar filled with my grandmothers’ kimchi / my pancreas secretes shikhye / made of rice & sweet water / my intestines are japchae noodles / breathe with me in this patchwork landscape / my lungs are green half-moon rice cakes that i eat / with my family on chuseok / hold my hands / my veins trace the city over & over / because my heart is a golden tiger / hailing from seoul
self-portrait as 서울
open the 광화문 gates of my mouth / part my red-blue lips / my teeth spell 한글 & english / my tongue often confuses them / swallows them whole / my esophagus is a rainbow 한복 sleeve leading to my stomach / a ceramic jar filled with 김치 from 할머니 / my pancreas secretes 식혜 / made of rice & sweet water/ my intestines are 잡채 noodles / breathe with me in this patchwork landscape / my lungs are green half-moon rice cakes i eat / with my 가족 on 추석 / hold my hands / my veins trace the city over & over / because my heart is a golden 호랑이 / hailing from 서울
Jimin Lee is a high school writer from Seoul, South Korea. She has been named a 2019 Finalist in Writing (Poetry) by the National YoungArts Foundation and recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, The Penn Review, Hollins University, and the Poetry Society of the UK. Her works appear in or are forthcoming from Liminality, Homology Lit, The Penn Review, Crashtest Magazine, The Daphne Review, and elsewhere. Lee is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Ideate Review and an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio as well as the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop.