Fighting Words
By Robin Kathaas
Sometimes I would like to be kicked in the face.
Hard and short. I imagine
it would feel triumphant. I’ve never lost a fight
when any boy was counting. Nor won one, but
those fights matter less than
the ones which put me on my back, sputtering not with red
but with a vibrant translucency, pearlescent snot
dripping down my face as time balls its fist and declares that
I am still too early
for most people’s liking. The best I have
gotten so far is a gut punch. Hard and slow. I let it
happen, striking technicolour boyhood: welts
well above the belt. The bruising is an exercise
in patience. I swear
sometimes I would like to be kicked
in the face. Hard and short — both of us
sick of waiting
for the chance to watch my body blossom
a heady purplish red: universal
colours of the erroneous loser flag.
I would wave it so well
given half the chance. Give me half the chance.
Let me focus
on what you have done to my skin, rather than
what my skin has done to me:
soft and long. A neutered pale expanse.
Nothing to write home about.
Justin N. Kim, In the Presence of Something Rare and Ephemeral No. 20, 2025, oil on canvas, 17" × 15.25".
Robin Kathaas is a Belgian poet who now lives in the UK with their cat, Orlando. Their poetry focuses on themes of dislocation through both time and space. Working with abstract images to explore familiar emotions, their work aims to make people feel the weight of their own presents, pasts, and futures. Plural for each one of us. They can be found on Instagram or by asking a postal dove really nicely.
Justin N. Kim is a Korean-born painter who currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Kim paints color field paintings, maps and circuit boards visualizing melded relationships and connections found within man-made subject matters and surroundings. Some of his latest work expands into an illustrative-graphic style.