SIX

Double jump high kick
face block, punch
drilled into muscle
at Kim's
taekwondo studio
like bamboo piercing through
fresh earth. I escaped
torment, playground
ridicule, blocked out taunts
from memory,
constructing dreams
of kicking ass to keep
my knees from giving out
underneath my trembling torso.
Suddenly second grade,
despite glasses and bad haircut,
was lying face down
on a tire swing
and spinning it
so the chain wound up
all the way to the top
then letting go.
Dizziness, the ground
coming up to meet my face,
the flood of fists
I held in behind my tears.