[ruins library]

By Myung Mi Kim b. 1957

where the route of a ship bringing tax grain from the provinces is described

where perceived hindering—say, birds congregating on a runway

where the first request was for fertilizer and seeds

where the instruction—harness these to the benefit of your society

where the conscription continued

where boards of revenue

where basically, everyone had a plant job

where preventable diseases rampant

where the need is window screens and sewer covers

where for the good of the very few and the suffering of a great many

Source: Penury (Omnidawn Publishing, 2009)

Biography

Myung Mi Kim was born in Seoul, Korea. She immigrated with her family to the United States at the age of nine and was raised in the Midwest. She earned a BA from Oberlin College, an MA from The Johns Hopkins University, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her collection of poems Under Flag (1991) won the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Award of Merit; subsequent collections include The Bounty (1996), DURA (1999), Commons . . .

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