Fragments by Kendall Rhee (California)

When mother birthed an ocean,
It knelt at her knees like a name.
Letters aching for salvation,
reaching like a syllable misunderstood. Were
you a hymn to be spoken for? Like how
yesterday, a boy dented his identity in denial.

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Bruised his mouth with the coffin of a gun.
They did not know what it was like, for the
sky to purple his hands into rust. Someday,
they will understand that his falling was in
stained dresses– That A God was blurred in
his drowning. Left to wonder how quickly
the brushstroke of an hour could fall
                                             unaccepted.

italicization translation:
an ocean knelt aching
like a hymn dented with a gun
is rust in stained dresses–
a god left unaccepted.

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Kendall Rhee is a Korean-American poet from California. She is a Junior at Cate School and an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Kendall's work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and she was named a 2021 California Arts Scholar in Creative Writing. Kendall hopes to use her poetry as a means to speak out on topics of identity, mental health, anti-Asian hate, and discrimination.