Passing Notes

“Passing Notes” is part of the collection Poets Resist, Refuse, and Find a Way Through. Read the introduction to the collection here.
—For the preservers of the Korean language during Japanese Occupation (1910–1945)
in secret
오늘은 내가 …
today i—
got in trouble
ㄷ ㅏ ㅅ ㅣ
i didn’t want
my words
shredded and
force-fed to me
so i (꿀–꺽) swallowed
them whole instead
let them germinate
in my belly
and grow up through
my esophagus
and into my mouth
can’t let them
see the roots
entangled under my tongue
the vines between my gums
the flower hanging
from my uvula
swaying back and forth
i split my mouth open
like ripe fruit, spilling
the words they wanted
to hear from me
ㄷ ㅏ ㅅ ㅣ
so they wouldn’t see
the seeds i’d hidden
in the notes i passed
to you in secret