Her poems and essays have been published in Poetry, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Hyphen, and elsewhere. Photo by Graham Cotten.įranny Choi is the author of two poetry collections, Soft Science (Alice James Books, 2019) and Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), as well as a chapbook, Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017). Listen as Franny Choi reads ' You're So Paranoid.' Added: Friday, J/ From 'Soft Science,' (Alice James Books, 2019). Your browser does not support the audio element. If I say sun-glass breaking open the gate If I say a palm in the small of the back. The cop kneels in the grass below my friends, my friendsĬrowned with August and salt. The cop speaks and I call a plum into his mouth it doesn’t shut him up. The wall up and down in sacred Ws if I make it. If I say I watched the woman brought down by her hair and watched I feel ashamedĪnd put it in my sleeve and later I make (it a picture like everything). I try to hear the border patrol agent order his food. If I say they are beautiful if I compare if the sun. If I hoist my friends up so they can be seen (by whom). The window rattles and I fall to my real knees.

If I name the grass.Īs she’s swung if the sun if August if blue juice Who slice plums illegally on soccer fields. (If I say a wall of men standing on my friends’ necks.) (If I describe it.) My friends who eatįrom plates who plug cords into machines for singing. If I say he stood alive in lineĪnd my friends are afraid to leave their bathrooms my friends I follow the border patrol agent through the airport thinkingįast thoughts bloodfast blood hound steps he buysĪ burrito. Like an economy which after all is a fairyīucking with hunger. If I say it came furtive and dressed in red.Ī walk. Hand fall gently over lips pulled coat tight tighter.Ī wall of cops bucks like a frightened boar.

I witnessed meaning stood by the window meaning shuddered let When a poet says we have to keep our eyes open I know who he’s talking to It’s not pretty, meaning it’s hard to watch. A wall of cops moves like a wall of water on a barge no beauty.Ī wall of iron swallows the woman who falls to the ground and keepsįalling.

Death by Sex Machine by Franny Choi