Myung Mi Kim "The Bounty"
THE BOUNTY
by MYUNG MI KIM
for Malcolm
born October 15, 1989
I
Lilacs to the post foretold
Learning fetch of water
ranges lingering
Funnel thirty
merges temporal wreath
For shelter the pounding sheet rain ponder shir rain roof
Hovers it starts start over field and plain mute forging how compass
Locate a thousand arrows deciphering one degree salted (down)
By granite specked by pink fraction to aim so
Uterus as uphill child's heartbeat repentant am in
Distinct from awash of mother blood rimless to whole
Without specifics, wind broken participle
Pins joints held forth two a nestle axis to tunnel
As axis what revolves three behest insistence
Lilacs to the post foretold
In the first in three as
Signal and hook fey lingual
was all claim
ocean seaweed
magnet ocean pull cement
the fore the ground wells the water
smelt smell wells the water
water and blood and salt
weight of ten skies falling
mother and father to
all done about/lost that/round as bushes
trench lines last lines converted
fathomable cardinals' red founding
colony the streams and cows the structure of
/taken to his new mother's cabin
clothed, fed roasted corn/
Mississippi River where he was born
water by measure
secret as grass
no one believes
the place or its trees
the voice or this scape
as supposed
Tombs of women ornamented
Who wants me dead
The children are the children are the children are
Stopping on the plain
Common table for
Conjure golden
Sheep and sausage
Spectacle and rain
Plenty of water
Plenty hands
Tiny pinprick infects the entire leg
Once at home, she must cook dinner
Take my arm andhoist it over head over impoverished
Said kept working loo oo names and censors
Not knowing shoes from encasements
Drenched. Interrupted. Cowered to pelting
Rearing ravage savage
Relunctant ear
In an effort to render a-s-m-o-d-i-c
Every hook a station full the pit
Pool(s) civilian 643,000 tons
To grasp the whole plate
Everywhere mawk mawk ordnung
Ordnung ordnance ordonnance in the new
King's name drums
And pig squeals
(January 1991)
Aloft as fish said that diapering wash
Sun recognition face arms toes count to count
There divulge magnet blood
Begin with ordinary speech
Undertow return to the site meadow a clearing
Supple sieve for granite
To effect it was to travel por allottery
By effort of steam by wild strawberry under poison oak
In the long recess of left to rot sirens' beckon
Bellow betrayer soporific
So much noise
And then the name of the other
Traces harbinger crooked to lime
How [is the case in which] her time suffices for her
Crosses over to her willow
Wallow statement spectacle
Pledged to appear
Would get closer
Lilac wander
Soak spine
Unite all three
Father look/mother -- task
Mother I
Mast
Horizon
Burn
Salt
From blank to blank / A threadless way
II
Mother confused with earth
Ankles leather bound
Henceforth return to the position of the seed
Upon her feet two sons four daughters
Head a bent a foul rhythm of elbows and knees
Shell once spoken (speaker) recognize by fin by frond
Left for dead the penetrable body mothers
Stories to crust abeyance
Divested wander white bespoken
On that recounting with bulbs and flowers woven
Rendering afloat recognition the mill
Who will know us embankment out of sequence
Preparedness state of preparedness on behalf prepare
Material compel it fixed and evident
Site of denuded trees
Absence charged with hand and foot chest and nipple
Upon the thr--
Who last ate sitting down anticipate his mouthful
Enter woodland and waste perspective thumbprint worn
Weapon affront lungs out
Demise detail weight of a head insupportable
Called to attention wooden capacity leap
Fruit bowl stand at counter at readiness
Thinned to white foam recognize it as ocean/ /scrape
Commerce complicit undifferentiated
Riotous blood to its root betrayal when
Milk mother boy to bone plumb plunder thinking
Outheld outlandish property skew mud
Imprint wail time and acre
[As well as his eagerness to despoil us of our property]
Face for nations albeit feathers father masked ones
To protect our heads from falling projectiles
Sword slit sixth month pregnancy held to command
Slew bayonet Kwang-ju sister pumpkin spill lantern world
Carnations red for mothers living white for dead
In each school room repeated white blooming
Owned random slipper streets made to appear wet
Bales of hay in the incinerating field
Grip of iron in the chidren’s throats
Because the face was hidden and the money was painted
Manipulation prevent what emergent story
Rank and degree speak amiss stunned have
Hasty hemisphere issuance gutteral meet time
Conflagration dividing cells their imprison
Tools and adjustments called family in habit
Dominion hankering position
Vain lain barrow burrow
Ripe mellon on grindstone
Serve affect yoke stamped
Material responsible for temperature
Features enslavement slung over shoulder
What and wet nurse and institution
Concave freshly slaughtered chicken every rising
Couldn't recall agency by which to relate
Admonishment arrive sooner rather
Witness attendant authority
Brack bracken lichen slip word this bare arms current
Pulps of teeth fit exact amount of profit
Rough approximate relative
Superfluous ownership skirts ballooning under water
Mutter call it was flurry fury
Scale wrought minimum
Pressive [ruin]
Tend attend log by log premise
Nameless indeterminate climb fence and pole
Subsume white generational white
Malice so turns matter of this matter proceed
Firepath vestigial
Point blank inner written last abode
Number of live births
Radial amid intone
Every locuter world of particular
Mother's daughter born//
Ton a designation fluent full
Inflection rooting variegated
Emblazon affirm infinitive
Formand door variable green vestry
Forage fervent reclaim
Sword to method
Let diligence still standing chimney
Register derivative
III
attenuate in measure and in collusion separate and bound wrench
mill by nine entries in the figure of nine propertied cell
given by nine entries in one acre shallow well and pump force
familiar hairy snouts arrows in wealth parade of gifts precisive
bestiary rain soaked evergreen tooth
reflex note circles heat swelling need
root familiar dipthong again siege defer
temper wrench its nature alloy encumbering poor
espouse quality of light mineral dulled
parting village home for bridal bequest fish by dozens to fry ritual
last break unctuous hills regalia fertile
shelter carve missive henceforth threshhold
flesh needle and cone pine heat recalcitrant venerable
supple proffer armfuls of just pressed noodles mate
privilege strand by strand mate amend null
ring that bloom to you greening
beheld ivy and clematis unhurried rotation
bridal one and one conjoined born
order summoned no longer you nor I outline
common prefigured sand spoon and fork letter
map baffled round scaled in house distances
law ribs of domesticated animals portioned
condition spiral spice ssp : breaks that way figurative
expanse varietal, enclosed, gate closed summoned
scope time yoke much interrupt hah -- na -- inert
bound distance desire molten to bed deaf
dwelling unaccustomed crimp clip wintering state
sullied one and oneness try and see out bound
recite rooty labor gather
named that many moons numbering verify
begin vestige limbs identify
parts mended from mutual
private measure forward endemic mother to child isolation
barrage saw mother led snow plowed dispel
brace hovering body curiously rended fissure
captive the question of plenty plenteous keel
hinder seacoast village salting its own mackrel tend
matter held against and in plumes of halt
elements dull body distilled sullied implicated
chemical anemone occluded hear hair dish of water circle
alien pulse stone pocked nuclear
artifact sinew clasped allot
aggress taken context mutter no force complicate
need fill shale look obsidian appropriated
faculties disuse impair douse praxis
horde impelled round fathom origin command
fulfill ring by ring imbibe mud recognition
sullage seeded kept abeyance pith
deplete distension diminutive erode
keel dole reverence barb halt
vertiginous for daily suffer decibel plantings rage siege
genesis banish forest and implement exchange
bark stalk stagnate atom to air clasp
skew property of daughters endemic
molten more fully permeated in the imaginative order mute
deposit page common to word fruition
measure isolate map infinitive grammar assail rescind
known resilient a halt conjoin
proffer declension derelict register outlay
sand fourteen sawdust trails reconnoiter
household scope lack score hem hem time
inflection metal scoop deliberate the imagine form
interrupt hear any one thing alter
resolute and way to stricture resilient
thread o-a-p/ah-p rinsing clear propertied
scaled illegible (infinitive) origin
envision her, and reading primacy
light sun acre sound snow along quay written
imbue object and word founder
attend enter time have said it ground bare
let green hair young garlic note
recitation have there the freedom of movement and newness humble
ground its own property chemical and fiber
bricks free of straw reading
acute alter primacy
jaw strike fluent
firmament method
sinew brush mound and gravel
synaptic
unruly enter
NOTES
1. "From blank to blank / A threadless way" -- Emily Dickinson
2. Kwang-ju: (South Korea) site of civilian uprising in May 1980 that
left an estimated 2,000 dead when armed forces were deployed under joint
U.S.-Korean command.
3. "her, and reading" -- Anne-Marie Albiach
Previous publication of excerpts from The Bounty:
Parts of I first appeared in Hambone and Avec.
Parts of II first appeared in Notus and Black Bread.
Part of III first appeared in Lyric &.
The Bounty is the title poem of Myung Mi Kim's second book, which will be
forthcoming from Chax Press early in 1996. The book may be ordered from
Chax at the pre-publication price of $8.00, including shipping. Price
after publication will be $12.00 + $2.00 shipping and handling.
Chax Press
P.O. Box 19178
Minneapolis, MN 55419-0178
612-721-6063
chax@mtn.org
Copyright © 1995 by Myung Mi Kim.
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