I see you now on the brink of a new life On the precipice of love - I see you craving new fullness, The plum of family. I would adore a conversation that could bring you to light;a way to say Keep it kindSelf-reflectBut I am small and my love falls to the wind, Announces itself to your surprise And the behaviours stay, Right in front. You have hurt me, HeldMy neck in your palm and yelled.I roll...

Alexander KAN. Lasting Call: My Return to North Korea     Dedicated to my daughter Katya (Translated by Yoon Kan, Berkeley University of California)   View from the burial hill in the city of Hamhung   Ladies and gentlemen, let me begin with a passage from my first short story, “The Rules of the Game.” Written in 1987, this story defined the meaning and direction of my subsequent work. “An...

 When you died it was your hands that got me.Your kidneys failed.Your hands swelled up.Those were never your hands.They were your handsBut they were never your hands.I held them tight, in the momentFor letting go. I had to learn thenTo let you go. When all you had to do to save yourselfWas sit in the chair,Don’t move,Ring your bell if you need to moveAnd we’ll help you, but with your compulsion...

I danced with my father on the concrete floors in suralaywhere my brothers and Iwould lower mirrors from the side and watch my father and his friendsdoing the latest Lagos rump shakerthen sneak down early morninglike imitatorsto feast on half-finished cigars and cigarettes butt's  Sip on spirits and beers knowingjust like beat of the hangingtalking drums if we got caughtit would all end up in ...