Benediction as Disdained Cuisine

by Jihyun Yun

 

Give me now

what scalds and reeks.

Give me chilis and garlic

raw. Give me dropwort,

chrysanthemum greens.

Buckwheat and tea. The bite

of a well-ripened kimchi.

Let me wrap my meat

in what others mistake

for spoil. Let me unearth months

-old jars of ponytail radish,

turned just so, and bless

rice with its sunny juices.

Give me that funk and meju pungency.

Let the fried fish stare vacuous

as I eat the reel of its body, mouth

lolling and teethed. The egg sac

nestled inside, give me that too.

Pouch of possibility, multitude and sweet.

So crisp the oil-puffed dorsal fins,

the tail fins. How good the flesh

off the cheeks, the grease off blistered

scales. Give me now what disgusts.

 

Grilled tongue, entrails fatly

gleaming. Fiery chicken

feet with the nails neatly trimmed.

Minutia of bone. Spit and keep eating.

Give me stink. Give me pig

skin dipped in powdered grain.

Give me krill and pickled octopus:

suckers up and gaping.

Food that makes you honor

what was killed for your sake.

Vein of the cod roe. Blistered

hair of the intact hock. Evidence

of bodies carved from.

What makes you clasp your palms

to your nose is the bell that calls in

my hunger. I don't care anymore

what you think. Give me sesame oil

and fat. Give me bloodied and raw.

The white broth of famine food.

Food made to last. To transform

with the seasons. To survive 

other nations. Give me all

I avoided so long for your sake. 

 

Give me my heritage back.

Let me suck meat off the shell

of every animal you won't eat.

Give me refuse, and I'll make it

worthy.