Like any foreigner, he thinks first
of the song, the pudgy rodeo clown,
lewd confetti vomited on the mall roof.
The Apgujeong store fronts flash
diamond teeth, neon kaleidoscope.
The Supreme Leader of North Korea
is a ferris wheel, drunk with light
and rage. What they have let happen.
The Supreme Leader buys a pork bun
and catches himself thinking
of champagne trickling
down a pert breast.
A group of firefly women walks by,
slathered in imperialist tinsel.
They giggle. The Supreme Leader
smoothes his shirt and whispers
an old worker song, asks his father
for forgiveness, tries
to swallow this city’s pill.
It goes down like a disco ball –
shattered, and kicking.
FRANNY CHOI lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she has spent the last three years working in youth, education, and grassroots organizing spaces. Her first collection of poems, Floating, Brilliant, Gone, was released on Write Bloody Publishing in March 2014. Her poems and stories have appeared in Poetry, PANK, Fringe, Folio, Apogee, and others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been a finalist at the National Poetry Slam, the Individual World Poetry Slam, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Through Project V.O.I.C.E. and the Providence Poetry Slam, Franny teaches creative writing in classrooms and community centers in her city and across the country.
