Yeonjae Eom - paperman

it starts with a punch to the gut hacking cough spitting curse and gasp slipping between barbed tongues and the cracks of skin smoke-dry it feels like a blow shut doors–sometimes metal bars batons to abdomen bowing where eye meets earth– soiled with paw prints of man– and breaths count numbers on one hand eyes unclosed half sea water half liquor so crystal clear the reflections of irises glitter pages written by cops and bastards while the heartbeats on the monitor’s lines meet grim reapers and angels between the collective memory and the lives of vile truth blank pages fill the gap long enough that by the end no man remembers each blow and each breath until it is written in with thick black ink no page of reservation fingers tracing sharp edges rounding red cuts healing in black streaks it ends with renewal like springs–bodies recoil but when broken bones mend fissures plastered together with pages of raw truth baring the wings of history the wind picks up under and the paperman flies

---

Yeonjae (Jeannie) Eom is a creative writer born in Seoul, South Korea. She spent the bulk of her childhood predominately growing up in five different countries, all while she was traveling and experiencing twenty-seven other countries across the globe. Her experiences interacting with the world reflect on the writing she produces, shedding light on what is hidden in the darkness and bringing the buried perspectives to the forefront of critical discourse. Yeonjae (Jeannie) Eom is a previously published author of the book 'One World' which is printed in both English and Korean, and she has published poetry titles across numerous magazines and award publications over international regions. She is a current student at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and she continues to explore and expand the realms of creative writing.