Emily Khym
Image from Pixabay
Emily Khym is a 16-year-old junior attending The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. In her free time, when she is not writing, she enjoys listening to music, playing the flute, and long runs. She is currently preparing her writing portfolio for university and was recently accepted to Juniper, Sewanee, Kenyon and Iowa Young Writers Camp. Her poems have been published in Daphne, Inlandia, Elevation Review, and Elan literary magazines.
Colorfully Homesick
i. mien
I wish:
I could hold the oily juices of my favorite xiao long bao in the crevices of my wrinkled hands,
sway to the soft waves of the erhu by the crackling fire, colorful a-to-z wheel,
all delicately folded into a weeping sunset
like our collective fate.
I was lovingly planted beneath the dirt, watching children in hanboks play yutnori
in the garlic-scented palms of our long lost grandmothers.
ii. four
We became skeletons, idle and numb, like the sea shells lovers collect in their sand jars,
and we drifted to the syrupy treats of sakura nerikiri whenever
the sacred cherry blossoms graced us with their presence.
er zi,
they would whisper to me, cradling me back into the soft layers of mother Earth,
preparing me for my last anthesis where my back would give way
to the whistling birds ensnared in the sculpted curves of my shoulders—
like the distorted shore of haeundae bruised by the rows of red umbrellas.
iii. empty
I hear stories from ships all around the world,
about the plates of pleasantries indulged
or the slashes of silver during geommu performances.
But I was stuck in this in between of America,
in a place of fabricated colors and cultures, left
homesick and alone.
references:
xiao long bao-chinese steamed buns filled with broth // erhu-two-stringed bowed instrument, commonly known as the Chinese violin // hanboks-traditional korean clothing dating back to centuries ago // yutnori-korean board game played on Korean New Year involving wooden sticks // sakura nerikiri-japanese treat made with sweet bean paste and glutinous flour // er zi-'son' in chinese // haeundae-popular beach in Busan, South Korea // geommu-traditional sword dance practice in South Korea.
©2021 West Trade Review
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