{"id":3240,"date":"2021-02-03T23:17:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T23:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=3240"},"modified":"2024-07-29T16:10:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T16:10:12","slug":"wordplay-with-krys-limin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wordplay-with-krys-limin\/","title":{"rendered":"Wordplay with Krys Limin"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alice Asch ’22<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Krys<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This month at <\/span>The Words<\/span><\/i>, we\u2019re celebrating the work of Krys Limin \u201822! Krys (she\/they) is a Religious Studies Major and Classics Minor from Wrightstown, New Jersey, who has dabbled in the genres of fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, and freestyle poetry. When asked about her areas of interest in writing, she said she is fascinated by \u201creunions and returns, the horrors of being the horror, the disconnect and intergenerational trauma between immigrants and their American-raised children, and the experience of being a woman in a sexually repressed Christian household.\u201d As for Krys\u2019s inspirations, they are drawn to \u201cthe smallest aspects of people\u2019s existence: what they use to hold their keys, the ways they are picky, their pet peeves, the food they eat and why.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Macalester, Krys hopes to become a Pharmacy technician while saving up for graduate school, where they intend to study Library Science and ultimately \u201cfulfill the young reader\u2019s dream of becoming a librarian\u201d<\/span>\u2014<\/span>with plenty of time for writing on the side, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy these two poems from Kyrs: \u201crizal in economy\u201d and \u201cthe lord\u2019s stitches\u201d!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

rizal in economy<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he had an old<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

leather briefcase, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which he tucked <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

into the overhead compartment<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and a tired grin, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which he offered<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

as he sat down. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he looked as <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i always dreamt him;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

as i always saw him<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

on the <\/span>peso<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

not a year aged;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

not a moment gained<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

since his final<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

farewell.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

where to? <\/span><\/i>he asked<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but i think he already<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

knew<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i think he just <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

wanted to hear<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

what i\u2019d call it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the dream, <\/span><\/i>i meant to say.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the land of milk and honey. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

instead, i stayed silent.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

how to tell a father <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that his child <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

is not good enough?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

how to tell a martyr<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

that he died for <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

an unloved land,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a country abandoned?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he nodded at my silence.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

it was answer enough, maybe.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he said, <\/span>it is not a crime to seek<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

greener pastures. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he took my hand<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the ink bled<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

into my skin as<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he wrote and spoke.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i studied with them too.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i learnt freedom from<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

them and resistance<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and how to eat them<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

from the inside out. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he got off the plane in <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

japan. i looked at my hand,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

his elegant script<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(<\/span>you can\u2019t be american<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

forever, <\/span><\/i>it said, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

come home when<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

you\u2019re ready.<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

and i rode the plane <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to salvation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the lord\u2019s stitches<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

shepherd jesus like a lamb<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sits between my legs as i sleep,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

paralyzed as if by bondage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

his fingers are slow, meticulous, steady,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a carpenter\u2019s fingers, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

sewing me shut,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

tucking in the seams.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the <\/span>prick <\/span><\/i>of the needle, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the <\/span>draw <\/span><\/i>of the string, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the tired <\/span>sigh <\/span><\/i>of Our Lord,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

like a hymn, a lullaby, played on <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a sleepy organ.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

he seals me up, a garden enclosed, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ties up the string and bites the end to keep it neat. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

purity is not sorrow, <\/span><\/i>he declares.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

i will one day dream of waking,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

seizing a seam ripper<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

slicing the stitches with precise motion. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

disrupting <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

hymn.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

telling him<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

you can\u2019t have my body. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

you have already taken<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

everything else.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

but for now i sleep, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

frozen in amber, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

stitched shut like the mouth<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of a corpse, <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

a secret, or a sin.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alice Asch ’22 This month at The Words, we\u2019re celebrating the work of Krys Limin \u201822! Krys (she\/they) is a Religious Studies Major and Classics Minor from Wrightstown, New Jersey, who has dabbled in the genres of fantasy, romance, horror, young adult, and freestyle poetry. When asked about her areas of interest in writing, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3240","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7013,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3240\/revisions\/7013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}