on hippos and a crab and the evolution of the word made flesh

i write her -

"하마

하마 동생...
넹 넹 넹???

소 주 나는 원해
네꺼 꽃게"

or romanized

"hama

hama dongsaeng
naeng naeng naeng

soju na nun whun hae
naeguh goke kae"

(hippopotamus little sister
yes/hello yes/goodbye yes/hello/goodbye???
i want soju
my little crab)

stringing words together like when i was 6
only that
when i was 6 i was less confined by lack of language
than i am now at 36
or is it 34
lately its just easier to stick to the year when asked

so at 6 i could say more than i can now the years aged after birth
in 1975

little sister hippo
my crab

i began at six with birds
or was i 8?

so i began in 1981 moved by dreams and birds
and now in twenty-ten reduced to rhyming words of
younger hippos and short slang salutations
i dream of words for one day
when i can look back
as i now do at 6 or 8 or the early 80's
and say how

"once upon a time
back in twenty ten when i was 34 or 36
i began my life as poet/시인 here
with silly rhymes that made us laugh

and it was in that time that neruda did arrive
and langston's dreams i lived"

i begin again - korean born, american raised, european shaped, as i did at 6 or 8 or sometime in the early 80s only now with

korean western rediscovered

one day my "little sister hippo"
when we are future eating crab and drinking soju that i want
i will tell you all the words in ways you feel
all the ones that i was saving
back in
twenty ten

- kim thompson. seoul, korea - thursday 13 may 2010 at 16.27