Q & A

Q

Hannah Sanghee Park, 1986

May I master love, undo its luster

do in the thing that makes us lust? 

May I speed through the body’s sinew 

to marrow? Or is toiling a part of 

the gaining of trust? May I pare and narrow 

your body down, and open it to my 

cupidity’s arrow? May I find my 

response to body’s unanswered call, 

(if the want leaves you wanting, at all)?

&A

Hannah Sanghee Park, 1986

Being a matter

of importance, there

is no mastering

this but to bind you,

thrash and all, to the 

mast. O you won’t reach

irresistible song, 

but the rope will teach

you the body’s give.

Go down to the bone,

then tell me again

there what matters. It

will give you every

-thing you need to know

about what I cannot tell you and then,

just maybe then, could it be enough.

About This Poem 

"This is a two-part poem, the 'Q' of a 'Q-and-A.' The speaker is urgent, urging this line of inquiry to get to the heart of the matter. 'And-A' will answer in the way all matters of the heart are answered: with patience." - Hannah Sanghee Park

Hannah Sanghee Park is the author of "The Same-Different," which won the 2014 Walt Whitman Award and is forthcoming from Louisiana University Press in 2015. She attends the Writing for Screen & Television Program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and lives in Los Angeles.