Sky Country

By Christine Kitano

Christine Kitano's second poetry collection elicits a sense of hungeran intense longing for home and an ache for human connection. Channeling both real and imagined immigration experiences of her own familyher grandmothers, who fled Korea and Japan; and her father, a Japanese American who was incarcerated during WWIIKitano's ambitious poetry speaks for those who have been historically silenced and displaced.

Christine Kitano's first collection of poetry, Birds of Paradise, was published by Lynx House Press. She lives in Ithaca, NY, where she is an assistant professor of creative writing, poetry, and Asian American literature at Ithaca College.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781942683445

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[image: cover]

SKY COUNTRY

Copyright © 2017 by Christine Kitano

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition

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For information about permission to reuse any material from this book, please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail [e-mail].

Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester AreaCommunity Foundation; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 80 for special individual acknowledgments.

Cover Art: Hallelujah: The Floating Mountain by Michael Yamashita

Cover Design: Sandy Knight

Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster

Manufacturing: McNaughton & Gunn

BOA Logo: Mirko

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kitano, Christine, 1985- author.

Title: Sky country / Christine Kitano.

Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., [2017] | Series: American poets continuum ; no. 162

Identifiers: LCCN 2017012292 (print) | LCCN 2017018707 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683445 (eBook) | ISBN 9781942683438 (softcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Japanese Americans—Poetry. | BISAC: POETRY / American / Asian American. | HISTORY / Asia / Korea.

Classification: LCC PS3611.I8775 (ebook) | LCC PS3611.I8775 A6 2017 (print) | DDC 811/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012292

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A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)

For my mother and father,

okage sama de

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

A Leaving

I

Sky Country

II

Gaman

February, 1943: Topaz Concentration Camp, Utah

Equinox

I Will Explain Hope

Fireflies

About the Trees

III

Leaving California

Before the Divorce, a Dry Thunderstorm

Ancestors

Lucky Come Hawai‘i

Summer: Insomniac Stages Her Love

Monologue of the Dental Assistant

Insomniac in Winter

Monologue of the Fat Girl

Insomniac in Spring

Choose Your Own Adventure: Go South

Insomniac in Fall

Worship

Insomniac Starts an Exercise Routine

IV

Years Later, Washing Dishes, A Vision

The Night Before Your 28th Birthday

Roofing

Bring in the