"The Japanese Man" "Ungulated" "The Colonel"

I can really relate to "Ungulated." My parents have a 1/4 acre hobby garden and they have gone to great lengths to prevent animals from eating their vegetables. I have helped my father set up the 5 ft fencing and for a couple of years we even electrified it. I have experienced the pushing through the pain of erecting a fence for the protection of your vegetables and can easily put myself in the gardener's shoes. I like how the story ends with "She digs in her hooves" referring to the deer relentlessly trying to get into the garden and also how it refers to the gardener buckling down and getting to business. "Ungulated" might be a play on "strangulated" or just a reference to the deer, which are a type of ungulate along with camels, llamas and alpacas.

"The Colonel" by Carolyn Forche was fascinating. It was written from the perspective that the reader is listening to a guest at the Colonel's house for dinner recount their experience. It is a military-occupied location that can grow mangos, and has a Spanish speaking population. The military is committing human rights violations, chopping off the ears of people. The ears are collected in a grocery bag and are placed on the table. When the Colonel wipes them off the table and says "As for the rights of anyone, tell your people to go fuck themselves." The some of the swept ears hear the Colonel's comment, which may be referring the maid and some of the ears were "pressed to the ground" indicating they were listening for the coming revolution or revolt.

"The Japanese Man" by Sharon Krinsky shows the emotional disconnect between our own suffering and the suffering of others. When the person is dreaming that they are the Japanese man, they cry for their own bad fortune, but when they are not the Japanese man, only an outside observer, they do not cry for his misfortune even though the know what it feels like.