{"id":5155,"date":"2025-08-04T21:03:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T21:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=5155"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:45:06","slug":"three-poems-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/three-poems-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Yoomin Noh<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Trending<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They say my face is trending again<\/span><\/p>\n

A girl with dark hair and dark eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

A headline, a hashtag<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn loving memory\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another attack, another grave<\/span><\/p>\n

Pushed, beaten, left bleeding on the street<\/span><\/p>\n

Was she the wrong kind of Asian this time?<\/span><\/p>\n

Their silence is louder than their grief<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am subjugated to conversations beyond my choosing<\/span><\/p>\n

Men call out in languages that aren\u2019t mine-<\/span><\/p>\n

Ni hao, konnichiwa –<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ask me which Korea I come from<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As if my skin is a costume they can name<\/span><\/p>\n

As if they can choose if I am their fear or fantasy<\/span><\/p>\n

As if my presence welcomes their judgement\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As if my turned back is an invitation to try again<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am made of more than their questions<\/span><\/p>\n

More than their sideways glances,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their careless hands<\/span><\/p>\n

The blood of my ancestors rushes through me<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am from the country that still sings when silenced<\/span><\/p>\n

From the fire of a nation that rebuilt itself from ash<\/span><\/p>\n

From the resilience of our people in protest<\/span><\/p>\n

From the ink of <\/span>hangul<\/span><\/i> carved into history<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They say my face is trending again<\/span><\/p>\n

But we are more than the stories told about us<\/span><\/p>\n

More than they take, more than they break<\/span><\/p>\n

We endure and we remain<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

She Still Sings<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She folds the napkin in her lap<\/span><\/p>\n

Forgetting she just ate<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She picks up a book she used to love<\/span><\/p>\n

Its meaning lost somewhere in time<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She once stitched the finest seams<\/span><\/p>\n

Now her fingers trace threads she no longer knows<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She held my hand with warmth and strength<\/span><\/p>\n

Now she trembles at my touch<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She searches my face for a name<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding only shadows<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She smiles when I walk in<\/span><\/p>\n

Without knowing why<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She wakes to a world both near and far<\/span><\/p>\n

Familiar yet indescribable<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She hums a song about the blue bird from long ago<\/span><\/p>\n

The lullaby that once carried me to sleep<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She\u2019s forgotten all but this<\/span><\/p>\n

Each lyric, each note in its place<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She fades, but I remain<\/span><\/p>\n

She forgets, but I remember<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She is here, yet slipping away<\/span><\/p>\n

A whisper of love I cling to<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Mr. President<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wonder if the air felt different that day<\/span><\/p>\n

Ascending the White House stairs<\/span><\/p>\n

Its polished rail gleaming beneath your hand<\/span><\/p>\n

The sharp angles of your jaw<\/span><\/p>\n

The swoop of aging hair<\/span><\/p>\n

Your skin a shade of sunburnt defiance<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did you think of Queens<\/span><\/p>\n

Its crowded streets and borrowed dreams<\/span><\/p>\n

Its gray sidewalks cracked with ambition<\/span><\/p>\n

Your father\u2019s empire sketched in the cement<\/span><\/p>\n

His smirk you practiced in the mirror,<\/span><\/p>\n

The clang of metal beams,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pulse of construction,<\/span><\/p>\n

Singing you lullabies of power\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr. President,<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you reminisce about your early family?<\/span><\/p>\n

Your mother meticulously arranging her hair<\/span><\/p>\n

Her voice a melody of immigrant pride?<\/span><\/p>\n

Your siblings, toiling by your side<\/span><\/p>\n

One lost to the grip of addiction?<\/span><\/p>\n

Did that not stir sympathy in the boy suffering from emotional neglect<\/span><\/p>\n

Cast in the shadow of a brother gone too soon?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your hands<\/span><\/p>\n

Small enough to be ridiculed<\/span><\/p>\n

But capable of signing orders that moved armies<\/span><\/p>\n

Your smile<\/span><\/p>\n

Wide and toothy<\/span><\/p>\n

But somehow never warm<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder if it aches to hold that shape<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr. President,<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you pause even for a moment<\/span><\/p>\n

As the echoes of your name fade into silence?<\/span><\/p>\n

When the lights dim and history sharpens its gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

On the weight of a nation you promised to make great?<\/span><\/p>\n

The applause is loud enough to drown the sound of real America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you feel it now?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Yoomin Noh<\/strong>, graduating in the class of 2026, is a political science major with an economics minor. She is from Bergen County and has lived there almost her entire life. She likes to write and her longtime passion has always been to become a lawyer. For fun, she loves to travel and spend time with friends and family.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yoomin wrote this poem in a course taught by Joshua November, who selected the piece for inclusion in the WHR<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yoomin Noh   Trending   They say my face is trending again A girl with dark hair and dark eyes A headline, a hashtag \u201cIn loving memory\u201d\u00a0   Another attack, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":5102,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5155","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree Poems - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/three-poems-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Poems - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yoomin Noh   Trending   They say my face is trending again A girl with dark hair and dark eyes A headline, a hashtag \u201cIn loving memory\u201d\u00a0   Another attack, … Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/three-poems-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-07T14:45:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/three-poems-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/three-poems-3\/\",\"name\":\"Three Poems - 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