Emily Jungmin Yoon - A Cruelty Special to Our Species

Rendering poetry in a digital format presents several challenges, just as its many forms continue to challenge the conventions of print. In print, however, a poem takes place within the static confines of a page, hewing as close as possible to the poets intent, whether its Walt Whitmans lines stretching to the margin like Route 66, or Robert Creeleys lines descending the page like a string tie. The printed poem has a physical shape, one defined by the negative space that surrounds ita space that is crafted by the broken lines of the poem. The line, as vital a formal and critical component of the form of a poem as metaphor, creates rhythm, timing, proportion, drama, meaning, tension, and so on. Reading poetry on a small device will not always deliver line breaks as the poet intendedwith the pressure the horizontal line brings to a poem, rather than the completion of the grammatical unit. The line, intended as a formal and critical component of the form of the poem, has been corrupted by breaking it where it was not meant to break, interrupting a number of important elements of the poetic structurerhythm, timing, proportion, drama, meaning, and so on.

Its a little like a tightrope walker running out of rope before reaching the other side. There are limits to what can be done with long lines on digital screens. At some point, a line must break. If it has to break more than once or twice, it is no longer a poetic line, with the integrity that lineation demands. On smaller devices with enlarged type, a line break may not appear where its author intended, interrupting the unit of the line and its importance in the poems structure. We attempt to accommodate long lines with a hanging indentsimilar in fashion to the way Whitmans lines were treated in books whose margins could not honor his discursive length.

On your screen, a long line will break according to the space available, with the remainder of the line wrapping at an indent. This allows readers to retain control over the appearance of text on any device, while also indicating where the author intended the line to break. This may not be a perfect solution, as some readers initially may be confused. We have to accept, however, that we are creating poetry e-books in a world that is imperfect for themand we understand that to some degree the line may be compromised. Despite this, weve attempted to protect the integrity of the line, thus allowing readers of poetry to travel fully stocked with the poetry that needs to be with them. Dan Halpern, Publisher Contents Mine is the jam-packed train.

The too-weak cocktail. This statement by an American man at the bar: Your life in Korea would have been a whole lot different without the US. Meaning: be thankful. This question by a Canadian girl, a friend: Why dont you guys just get along? The guys: Japan and Korea. Meaning: move on. How do I answer that? Move on, move on, girls on the train. Destination: comfort stations.

Things a soldier can do: mount you before another soldier is done. Say, Drink this soup made of human blood. Say, The Korean race should be erased from this earth. Tops down. Bottoms up. Things erased: your name, your child, your history. Your new name: Fumiko, Hanako, Yoshiko. Name of the condom: Charge Number One.

Name of the needle: Compound 606. Salvarsan means, an arsenic to save. Ratio 291: 29 soldiers per girl. Actual count: lost. Lost: all. Shot, shot, shot, everybody.

Give thanks. On Wednesday, I ate plain yogurt. Opened a notebook. Vivaldi as I folded my laundry. It was his birthday. On Wednesday, it rained.

On the succulents, on the surviving women. Tricked or taken, carted to Japanese soldiers. The condom said Attack Number One. Rinsed for reuse. On Wednesday, I listened to The Four Seasons. It stopped raining. It never stopped raining.

On Wednesdays, it rains for the children they bore. For the children they could not bear. For the children they were. Give them this day. Give them Vivaldi, violin, give them the all-girls choir. Linverno, come and gone.

All four seasons, come and gone. On Wednesday, nothing happened. Rain evaporated, and so did the concertos. Wednesdays ago, the women, the girls, clutched each other. Who will live, who will leave, who believes this life. The world will be better after you and me. What is pressing.

What is pressed. Or who. My grandmother. A woman. A teen. Her father presses the gates shut.

Presses her into a crate. The crate into a shed. She unfolds by morning. Binds her chest. She walks unwomanned. An American soldier sees her and yells Stop over there! in Japanese.

The language theyve both learned. When she runs, she is unmistakably woman. She falls. He laughs. What is a body in a stolen country. Or whose.

What is right in war. What is left in war. War hasnt left Korea. I have. I fold. I give up, myself, to you.

Which one of you said Lets have raunchy Korean sex to me. Which one of you didnt. Do you represent America to me. Did those soldiers to her. We didnt fear war. the street drummer calls out in Korean no doubt thinking it a compliment a pleasant surprise cinched with red ribbons for Christmas the day select theatres will gift us with The Interview a comedy in which two American journalists ignite Kim Jong-uns face freedom has prevailed the films star Seth Rogen says about the release the same was thought at the time of Koreas release from the Japanese Empire though then the Korean War began and compared to war whats so bad about a movie anyway even war can be funny and now a drummer in New York says you got a smile that could light up the whole town though Im not smiling thinking about villages and cities of what became North Korea set on fire sending puddles of twilight into sunless skies as if flames could stab but his freedom of speech prevails freedom always prevails which is why we get to see two Americans incinerate a Korean face on Christmas hold our popcorn and chocolate bars and laugh as the dictator explodes in tune to a pop song laugh as American soldiers would laugh at Korean children chanting hello hello gibu me choco-let with wartime hunger laugh as they choose which face to light up The trouble with trees is that their bodies and limbs are too capable, capable of burning, of living, capable of leaves, of leaving, charcoal, ash, and we think we have power. Capable, 1561, from Late Latin capabilis receptive, Unit 731 of the Japanese Empire injects us with monkey blood, our limbs are not receptive, Capable, used by theologians, from Latin capax able to hold much, our living bodies and extracted children, not holding, not Capable, capere to take, grasp, lay hold, catch, undertake, be large enough for, comprehend, how to take, how to grasp, comprehend, our limbs catch fire, taken, our bodies not large enough, Capable, Sanskrit kapati two handfuls, two handfuls of intestines, are they Capable, Greek kaptein to swallow, gulp down, pills, gas, what more, Capable, Lettish kampiu seize, our limber bodies, carve our bodies, our eyes unseized by their sockets, Capable, limbs, capable of burning, of ash, charcoal, Capable, Old Irish cacht servant girl, her fallopian tube, cut, living, not Capable, of living, leaving, Welsh caeth captive, slave, Capable, our names, maruta, from Japanese, logs. Capable, 1561, from Late Latin capabilis receptive, Unit 731 of the Japanese Empire injects us with monkey blood, our limbs are not receptive, Capable, used by theologians, from Latin capax able to hold much, our living bodies and extracted children, not holding, not Capable, capere to take, grasp, lay hold, catch, undertake, be large enough for, comprehend, how to take, how to grasp, comprehend, our limbs catch fire, taken, our bodies not large enough, Capable, Sanskrit kapati two handfuls, two handfuls of intestines, are they Capable, Greek kaptein to swallow, gulp down, pills, gas, what more, Capable, Lettish kampiu seize, our limber bodies, carve our bodies, our eyes unseized by their sockets, Capable, limbs, capable of burning, of ash, charcoal, Capable, Old Irish cacht servant girl, her fallopian tube, cut, living, not Capable, of living, leaving, Welsh caeth captive, slave, Capable, our names, maruta, from Japanese, logs.