Picking up and reading through Cathy Park Hong's poetry collection titled Dance Dance Revolution has been nothing short of puzzling, exciting, and new. Most of the poems are spoken by the Tour Guide - though her words are apparently edited at times by the Historian - in 'Desert Creole,' a language that is a bit of every language.
The poem 5. Atop the St. Petersburg Dome is one such example of the Tour Guide's typical style of speaking. But more importantly, the poem's re-telling of a bit of the Tour Guide's personal history made me think of her relationships with honesty and history.
As we know, the hotel guide is bald and wears wigs to cover her scalp (she even says she has "wig-rash") (34). Then when I read the lines "a game show lass / wit no appliance to show," which imply that there is no great goal or reason why the guide still gives her tours, I thought about how perhaps the reason she gives tours is because they lend her the opportunity to direct attention away from herself and her troubled background (34). Just like her wigs, giving tours could be a one of the Tour Guide's defense or coping mechanisms.
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