ARIM LEE
cw – racism
hangeul1 abecedarian
Getting to see myself in your mirrors wasn’t a
novelty; it was a punch to my mouth. The
declarations were silent, sure, but they ate me
raw. To you, America, I was never
more than the way my mother couldn’t
be doe-eyed and corn-blonde. You keep
stammering that diversity is all
over your body, but then why do I shrink
just a little every time the cashier’s
cheer dims down for us? You know the best
kills are committed alongside apologies.
Tell us you’ll make it better. Tell us soft
prayers. And I’ll tell you about the time I
hid in a bathroom and cried until I threw up because a man coughed in my face.
1 The Korean alphabet.
Arim Lee (she/her) is a high school student based in Massachusetts who calls Seoul, South Korea home. Her work has recently been recognized by the Alliance for Young Writers, Smith College, The Harvard Crimson, and more. In her free time, she goes hunting for more stickers to put on her laptop.