TODAY by Kendall Rhee (California)

I see a man shape memory
with his hands, like a bruised god.

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fingers, scraping for meaning in the buzz
of a split identity. before this, he was the boy
left shattered on my windowsill–more scissored than living, running from those other boys with smoked mouths glazed glossy with rotten liquor, father’s fingertips powdered in the haze of his absence.
when he remembers, you watch them shove substance into his mouth to make him a man, press his cheeks into the clenched hands
of a forced high: a conformity, muted laughter. 


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.