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  • Lullaby | Goodnight
  • Sun Yung Shin (bio)

"A long, long time ago, there lived a king with six daughters. The king and his queen desperately wanted a son, as they needed a prince to succeed to the throne. They devotedly prayed for a son and, at last, the queen had a seventh child. To their disappointment, however, the newborn baby was a princess again. The king was depressed and even furious at the arrival of another daughter. He went as far as deserting the poor baby girl by putting her in a box made of jade and floating it on a stream. On the box was carved the baby's name "Baridegi," meaning an abandoned child.

… "Feeling sorry for her bedridden father, she set out on a journey beyond the world of the living to find the water of life. After a long and grueling journey, she finally reached the world of the dead. But nothing was free."

"Baridegi, the Abandoned Princess," Culture, KBS World Radio

Goodnight, parents' first chance encounter.Goodnight, ovum, alone.Goodnight, placenta.Goodnight, fetal dreams.

Goodnight, hearing the Korean language through water, blood, and mother-skin.Goodnight, birthing process, crowning, crown.Goodnight, baby, wound, you.Goodnight, (Korean) name. [End Page 129] Goodnight, family registry and list of fathers and fathers and fathers and further, farther.

Goodnight, sister(s).Goodnight, brother(s).Goodnight, 할머니 halmoni and 할머니 halmoni.Goodnight, 할아버지 haraboji and 할아버지 haraboji.Goodnight, 엄마 umma and 아빠 appa.

Goodnight, singular moon over the roof of our dwelling.Goodnight, mother's milk.Goodnight, scent of mother's neck.Goodnight, __________________________________.Goodnight, foster family–five adults and a dog.Goodnight, homeland.Goodnight, fellow citizens.Goodnight, (myour) language.Goodnight, memory and its imprints.

Goodnight, Park Chung-hee and your assassins.Goodnight, Park's wife Yuk Young-soo, and a high school student, Jang Bong-hwa.Goodnight, Smith and Wesson .22. [End Page 130] Goodnight, Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung-hee, Korea's first woman president.Goodnight, impeachment.

Goodnight, reunification.Goodnight, going to bed with one face.Goodnight, waking up in another country.Goodnight, waking up in a-------- house.Goodnight, waking up in a-------- family.Goodnight, waking up in a-------- name.Goodnight, wetlands of the body (how they weep with ceasing).Goodnight, fever dreams and fugue states.Goodnight, graves of my ancestors.Goodnight, soju poured on headstones.

Goodnight, merging into the crowd.Goodnight, family medical history (Stomach cancer? Heart attacks? Madness? Suicides?...).Goodnight, grandparents of my (American) (Korean) children.Goodnight, the (Korean) girl and (Korean) woman I would have been.Goodnight, everything. [End Page 131]

Koreamerica has allowed me to take one thing with me.I will take my body to America.She remembers (everything) in her own way.She attends me.

(Princess, of a kingdom of one.)In a sense, I kidnapped her.She (always) has to goWhere (ever)I (may) (I) go— [End Page 132]

Sun Yung Shin

신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin is a poet, writer, artist, and independent curator. She is the author of poetry/ essay collections Unbearable Splendor (Minnesota Book Award); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (Asian American Literary Award) (all published by Coffee House Press). She is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota and co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Her bilingual (Korean/English) illustrated children's book is Cooper's Lesson. She is the co-director with Su Hwang of the literary organization Poetry Asylum, which recognizes poetry as a human right. She lives in Minneapolis.

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