The leper, deep in sorrow.
At moon rise, in the barley field,
He devours a child.
—Jeong-Ju Seo, trans. Heejung Sim
I am the slow-steady flow
Of water draining
Around you. Pooling
Around ankles
Listless
When stopped.
My fishbowl lenses
Curve the world,
Suspend my eyes in
Clear light so
You can’t see me.
I pour my tea
Amber down my throat
As though the solute-world
Would crystallize.
I have a terrifying character
It slips from my ears
Or drips from my lips.
I will not repent.
I spin in off-kilter worlds.
Retrograde rotation
Of me around the sun.
Pinpricks in shoulders,
Dull unease.
I drown in air.
In mobius-strip dreams
I punch patterns in
Bound brown rice paper
Stretched in looping reams.
I know green emotion
Moss haze in swimming pool,
Tendril swamp.
I know the death drive
And the leper too:
I have silos inside
I store sorghum dusk-crimson,
I need to survive. Even if
I need to eat the child,
I will not repent.