Danyal Kim

Drunk Like a Korean

It’s hard living in the West / When the East has the best of me -Omar Offendum

I was twenty eight when I learned to make proper kimchi stew
fatty pig meat boiled in orange broth

at thirty I learned a proper taekwondo side kick
knee tilted towards chest leg tilted flat enough to hold a paint can
my kick shakes a punching bag like a rubber tree
my coach smiles and swears it’s Korean DNA
****
UFC wide brim cap on my head a Palestinian scarf
is a large atlas of strings and diamonds
a coworker flirtatiously suggests i look like a Korean pop star
at the train station near work foreign East Asian students
stare at my scarf in curiosity an insect with mysterious colors
zipping past their head
****
on a date with a US soldier the half white half Latina lady
holds my pale hand blank as origami paper says it’s a Korean hand
like Je Moon’s hand after some few drinks my cheeks are pink cherry blossoms
she says i get drunk like a Korean skinny porcelain faced people falling asleep
on the plastic seats of the Seoul subway trains

we made out on Madison st bridge Chicago skyscrapers
in their evenings gowns studded with golden coins
i don’t know if she’s kissing me or remembering a karaoke bar
air dank with scent of soju liquor food stalls selling fried squid legs
****
in college, an Afro-Arab woman from Beirut asks me,
Why do you talk like a white man?
with indignation like my midwestern upbringing was blasphemy

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Danyal Kim lives in Chicago, where he works at an office job with a government agency by day and writes poetry by night. He is a big fan of combat sports and practices kickboxing as a hobby. His poems have shown up in a few publications such as Collective Unrest, Apricity, Mockingheart Review and Hungry Chimera. IG: danyal.kim