THE HUNT
Selective slaughter is not as prudent
as we imagined. They call this “culling”,
a word with the Latin roots “colligere”—
”to gather”. To give an identity as bait,
to lure with the illusion of possessing
nothing but an identity. They say it is the
naming of the unnameable that connects
people and gives solace, but it is also the naming
which takes hold of us. We have no idea
what words can do, how names can be cages.
So I grieve, for victims of a system for a people
we do not consider ourselves as part of. Nothing
but a sterilised identity, a name.
Koel Chu is a writer from Hong Kong. Her recent work has appeared in Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Asia Art Archive's IDEAS Journal, Fleurs des Lettres, SAMPLE, BIOS Monthly, and Still / Loud.