‘Karyotype’
— Hannah Cohen
Our heritage can be a powerful and painful subject for poetry, as established by Jasmine Cui in ‘Karyotype’. Here, the family tree is dissected and then assembled before us: the speaker as mother, father, grandmother. We’re given names of places we know, or maybe we don’t. There’s a stringing together of poignant and physical images arranged in such a way that I have yet to see another poet accomplish. There’s no hesitation or second-guessing of identity from this young poet, which as we enter the uncertain year of 2017, is a refreshing and hopeful attitude to have.