Episode 41: Say Grace

Connor and Jack discuss Emily Jungmin Yoon's poem "Say Grace." They discuss how gender and religion intertwine in the poem, the difficulties immigrant populations face in new oppressive states, and Yoon's particular kind of reclaiming.

Check out the poem below or at this link.

Read more about Yoon here. Read more about Kelly Oliver's Witnessing here.

Say Grace
By: Emily Jungmin Yoon

In my country our shamans were women
and our gods multiple until white people brought
an ecstasy of rosaries and our cities today
glow with crosses like graveyards. As a child
in Sunday school I was told I’d go to hell
if I didn’t believe in God. Our teacher was a woman
whose daughters wanted to be nuns and I asked
*What about babies and what about Buddha*, and she said
*They’re in hell too* and so I memorized prayers
and recited them in front of women
I did not believe in. *Deliver us from evil.
O sweet Virgin Mary, amen.* O sweet. O sweet.
In this country, which calls itself Christian,
what is sweeter than hearing *Have mercy
on us.* From those who serve different gods. O
clement, O loving, O God, O God, amidst ruins,
amidst waters, fleeing, fleeing. *Deliver us from evil.*
O sweet, O sweet. In this country,
point at the moon, at the stars, point at the way the lake lies,
with a hand full of feathers,
and they will look at the feathers. And kill you for it.
If a word for religion they don’t believe in is magic
so be it, let us have magic. Let us have
our own mothers and scarves, our spirits,
our shamans and our sacred books. Let us keep
our stars to ourselves and we shall pray
to no one. Let us eat
what makes us holy.