Born in Seoul, South Korea, Don Mee Choi is the author of Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016) and The Morning News Is Exciting (Action Books, 2010), and chapbooks Petite Manifesto (Vagabond Press, 2014), Ahn Hak-sôp #4 (The Green Violin, 2018), Sky Translation (Goodmorning Menagerie, 2019), and a pamphlet of essays Freely Frayed (Wave Pamphlet #9, 2014). She has received a Whiting Award, Lannan Literary Fellowship, and Lucien Stryk Translation Prize, and is currently a 2019 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program Fellow. She has translated several collections of Kim Hyesoon’s poetry, including I’m OK, I’m Pig! (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), Poor Love Machine (Action Books, 2016) and Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018).
Events
Suicide Parade
Father—Cyanide=
Let’s take a closer look at the most feared weapon used by the US in the
Korean War, a gelling powder composed of naphthalene and palmitate
(hence napalm)
65% oleic acid + 30% coconut fatty acid + 5% naphthenic acid
necessitates most arguably necessary clinging burning
necessitates gasoline and stirring (hence gasstir)
which is to say South Korean laborers funnel napalm powder into gasoline tanks
Moisture is the greatest problem in mixing napalm
Reds dead without a mark on them (hence hardly)
Wooden warehouses and thatched-hut villages, common in Korea, were made
to order for firebombs, as were Japan’s wooden cities
(hence napalm) and (hence gasstir) and the respectable distance of the planes
maintains a gusto of ringspots
maintains Bombenbrandschrumpfleichen
which is to say incendiary-bomb-shrunken bodies
so the story of napalm is still being written in Korea
(hence napalm) + (hence gasstir)
double hence
Daughter—Cyanide=
“Suicide Parade” from Hardly War. Copyright 2016 by Don Mee Choi. Used with permission of the author and Wave Books.