no, then this infinite line of mourners cannot
Students stream through the museum
into the bunker, back out of the battery
who cared for the children who survived?
The state
The state gave them a place, status in society
valued them, cared for them
instead of selling them to white westerners
is this why the US cannot apologize
for this shameful history?
This history is not taught in US classrooms
it is not taught in South Korea
but it is taught tonight
Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton,
please rectify the past
apologize on behalf of your predecessors
and this country
you call the greatest nation in the world.
Yes You Can!
Teleporting Babies
Imagine a world
where Korean babies
could teleport
when white christian agencies abduct them
they can return
to their original families
What if their $30,000 purchase price
were invested
in a trust
in their name?
money would grow on ginkgo trees
liberate unwed mothers and their children
smash single mom stigma
take over National Assembly bedrooms
No need for twenty-week protests, impeachment
teleporting babies would have stopped
Pak Geun Hye voting booths
her father overthrown
into his Han River regime
Teleporting babies would rule
the Korean peninsula forever
kick out the US imperialist army
reunite north brothers and sisters
families divided between east and west
because teleporting babies
know what’s best
for themselves
their people
the world
Teleporting babies know
stealing them from young, poor mothers
is not in their best interest
Teleporting babies
love everyone
not just the rich, powerful, white
Teleporting babies would rule
every continent
baby silence doesn’t equal agreement
it means
we’re planning our world domination
so love will dominate
so peace will dominate
Psalm for White Saviors
The white man is not my savior; surely I will be silenced in my own family
He forces me to take his white name and pretend to be white
He takes me to church on Sundays, Wednesdays
strips me of my Korean heritage
Yea though I walk through the valley of assimilation
I fear death in my isolation
He blesses me with white privilege
only to take it away like a thief in the night
Surely I can’t pass as white eternally
for my olive flesh, almond-shaped eyes
shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in my yellow body
with my white name forever.
My Ancestors Were Royalty
I come from a line of badass women
for only they had the grace
to spit in white supremacy soup
My lineage of women
never surrendered to saving face
quiet, demure stereotypes
submissive Asian females
we never caved to angry little Asian girls
My ancestors armed me
to shut you down
ignore your postured strut
insecure bullying
May my descendants know their royal blood line
flows purple like fields of mountaintop lavender
red, white and blue-swirled burgundy
cloaked in gold-trimmed velvet
platinum-clad, battle-ready
My ancestors taught me
having the last word
means to ignore yours
Notes
Asian American History 101—The Summit refers to The APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, a gathering of Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) spoken word artists and poets.
How Often Do You Masturbate? was inspired by not your fetish by I was born with two tongues
Return to Sender—The Child Citizenship Act (CCA) of 2000 grants US citizenship to inter-country adoptees but is not inclusive of adoptees who were adults at that time. There are an estimated thirty-five thosuand adoptees living without US citizenship. Some have been deported and some of the deported have not survived. The Adoptee Citizenship Act aims to close this loophole.
Consider was written with the text of Scott Cohen’s “Popular Turf Varieties,” landscapingnetwork.com/lawns/types.html.
For My Mother is loosely based on Things I Could Never Tell My Mother by Denise Duhamel.
KADalicious—KAD is commonly used to refer to Korean Adoptee
Pyeongchang 2018 Charter—2018 will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the 1988 Seoul Olympics when South Korea’s baby export business was exposed to the world and at which time South Korea greatly reduced the number of children being sent abroad.
Babies for sale. South Koreans make them, Americans buy them.
—Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, January 1988
Acknowledgments
It takes a village to make a poet. Let me introduce you to a few from my village.
“ASSIMILATION” was previously published in Homeland Insecurities and the O.K.A.Y. (Overseas Korean Artists e-Yearbook), #5. “For My Mother” was performed at the 2017 Listen To Your Mother show in Burbank, CA. “After I Left” was previously published as “After I Left Korea” in the 2017 City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide. “Return to Sender” was previously published in Cultural Weekly, reprinted in Portside and included in the Arts + Advocacy: Citizenship for All Adoptees event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Much gratitude to the team at Rare Bird! Thank you Tyson Cornell, Julia Callahan, and Alice Marsh-Elmer for reading my entire manuscript and venturing into the world of poetry! To the entire Rare Bird team—Hailie Johnson, Gregory Henry, Jake Levens, and Guy Intoci—thank you for bringing this book to life!
Love and eternal gratitude to Mongrel, The Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Spoken Word and Poetry Summit, Summit founders I Was Born With Two Tongues and Isangmahal and the 2011 Twin Cities Summit Organizing Committee. The Summit Family provided a space for me to connect with 1st generation and contemporary APIA poets and find my way through this jungle of a journey called life!
Thank you to the cofounders and founding members of Adoptee Solidarity Korea (ASK) in Seoul. You all are trailblazers and revolutionaries. You took an unpopular yet necessary stand on an important human rights issue and provided a space for me to voice my many conflicting thoughts and feelings on inter-country adoption that now live in these pages. We are nearly mission accomplished!
Adoptee Solidarity Korea – Los Angeles (ASK-LA), the Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (G.O.A.’L), the Dual Citizenship Planning Committee, and Koroot, your solidarity and commitment to equality and justice have weathered many a storm and continue to provide a light for generations to come.
Thank you to the many workshops and open-mics that nurtured my growth as a writer in Minnesota, Seoul and
Los Angeles and all those from whom I’ve taken a workshop: Asian American Renaissance, Diaspora Flow, Equilibrium, Party Benefit & Jam, Our Mic, #90X90LA and Writ Large Press, The Poetry Lab in Long Beach, The Poetry Salon, The Anansi Writers’ Workshop at The World Stage, Kaya Press, Studio Karimi, Rooftop Studios, the Allied Media Conference, and so many more.
Beau Sia, you made me stand on the ledge, literally. You helped me do the challenging work of owning and believing in My Words, My Life, My Voice. Thank you!
Jaha Zainabu, you are a model for any poet. I am blessed to know and learn from you!
Arianna Lady Basco, much appreciation for curating and editing a manuscript that sings. Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone in Our Mic’s round #2.
Thank you Karen Gee for your expert legal advice!
Peace and love to AKoldPiece, Cynthia Allesandra Briano, Camari Carter-Hawkins, Jessica Ceballos, HyunJu Chappell, Jaye Cho, Jenna Cho, Chiwan Choi, Tammy Chu, Sharon Chung, Alexis Rhone Fancher, Angela Franklin, Cynthia Guardado, Andrea Gutierrez, David Hall, Robert Karimi, Nicole Kim, Annie Koh, Linda Kwon, Vincent Kuneen, Paul Mabon, David Mura and our virtual Asian American Writers class, Juliana Hu Pegues, Taia Perry, Bao Phi, Reverdia ‘da River Woman, Siwaraya Rochanahusdin, Juyeon Rhee, Kim Stoker, Anne Sjogen, Natalia Sylvester, Kelly Grace Thomas, Suzanne Weerts, Dana Weiser, Tanya Wenning and Betsy Yoon. You and many more have played a role in my author journey from Minnesota to Seoul to Los Angeles!
Eternal love and peace to the late Joy De La Cruz and Brandon Lacy Campos. Your fire and light will always inspire me. Rest in Power!
Mil gracias to Las Dos Brujas Writers’ Workshop and Chris Abani for the opportunity to learn in La Mision!
Last but indeed not least many thanks to Community Literature Initiative (CLI) and Founder & Director Professor Hiram Charles Sims. Your mission to make books and get us on the shelf made these pages a reality. This book would not exist without your passion for poetry and vision to make authors! Much gratitude and love to the CLI family. Special thanks to Year 3 Poetry and Extension, especially in naming my book!
About the Author
Julayne Lee is an adopted Asian American poet, writer, artivist, producer, and sometimes blogger. Inspired and empowered by the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) spoken word groups Mongrel and I Was Born with Two Tongues, she began writing as a means of survival. Never intending to share her work, she realized after reading it publicly that as writing had brought her healing, it could do the same for others.
She has read in Seoul, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Julayne was selected for the 2017 Listen To Your Mother show in Burbank, CA. She has written for Korean Quarterly and her piece on the film Casa de los Babys was republished in Uri Shinmun, a multilingual publication based in the Netherlands. Her poetry has been published in Homeland Insecurities a chapbook fundraiser for the APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit, the O.K.A.Y. (Overseas Korean Artists e-Yearbook), #5, the 2017 City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, Cultural Weekly and Portside. Her guest blog posts have appeared on Land of Gazillion Adoptees, Slant Eye for the Round Eye and the Minneapolis–St. Paul StarTribune. Julayne received a Poets & Writers grant for the Association of Korean Adoptees—San Francisco (AKA-SF) 20th Anniversary Reading with Poets and Authors. With a passion to amplify marginalized voices, she has produced and hosted readings and workshops for writers of color including Our Voices: A Reading & Discussion with Adoptees of Color as part of Writ Large Press’s #90X90LA 2017. She has also spoken on adoption at symposiums and universities in Seoul and the US.
Julayne received her BS in Mathematics Education and has a Masters of Arts in Education. She is a co-founder and steering committee member of Adoptee Solidarity Korea—Los Angeles (ASK-LA) and served on the ASK (Seoul) steering committee. She is a Community Literature Initiative Scholar and a Las Dos Brujas Writers’ Workshop alum.