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By Suji Kwock KimPosted Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003, at 7:47 AM ET

Listen to Suji Kwok Kim reading this poem.


Pretend I can't see
the lady in pearls mistaking me
for the kitchen help I could have been, or be.

Pretend I can't see
the busboy still working at seventy
bend over painfully.

Pretend I can't see
the maitre d'
pretending not to see.

"Dare you see a Soul—at the White Heat?"
"Anger: anger's my meat."
"So I did sit and eat."


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Suji Kwock Kim's first book, Notes From the Divided Country, won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa.
Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.


To submit poetry to Slate, send up to five poems and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine, Boston University, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA, 02215.
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