GOSPEL OF REGICIDE, BY EUNSONG KIM
Eunsong Kim’s debut collection of poetry, Gospel of Regicide, celebrates the traitor situated against systems of power and whiteness—in two parts. In her first section, “Regicide,” Kim quickly gives way to the problems of the deeply rooted narrative. “They are a collection,” she tells us, “of revisions upon revision that roam my / memory which means they / are utter lies and my only foundation.” As her poems unfold, she writes and unwrites stories of love, of Christianity, of money, of POC and assimilation. Her language, form, and the scope of her speaker shift in resistance to the currency of the cage, captor, and category, and while Kim’s work resists outside naming, it is without question a collection named for the killing of kings. The speaker’s ability to thrive depends on his dethroning. The desire for regicide is given in the voice of the traitor, the betrayer—the Judas in all her subversive refusals. In her collection’s final section, “The Gospel,” there is no patience for meaningless good intentions. She demands more urgency, more action, more eradication. Get “committed to the fundamental destruction” and above all, pay attention; Kim’s written us a creed “to divest destroy revolt” and whatever we take from this book, may we heed her gospel, “treachery is not a moment / but a lifetime commitment,” and unwrite our part.
—Review by Madeline Vardell
