last night i...

i remember you

dark haired and lovely

as if through a window

and not a pixelated screen



i know the beauty of what i have been given

so much that this morning sun is blinding me

in my seeming cavern dwelling

i have filled myself with sustenance

and memories

love of you

is a love of

me



i know your transgressions

that you tried to hide in secret

but they do not erase

what once was good

because i also know

all the things youre pushing down

so even in a poem i can forgive

because of how even in life

so much i have been

forgiven

in (my) own days of

suppression



i know what this place does to the soul

yes,

it does rebuild

but,

it also does tear down

and you cannot look without being changed

han river is both contaminated and so seoul cleansing



i am here

so fully here

but i feel how my heart

it is

expanding

to outside of here

(this day is not the day for decisions

but one day will be)



but last night i loved this city

as if it were my own

as if we were friends separated by time

only to return to life as lovers

i loved it as i nursed my beer

and sat beneath some city planted trees

i loved it as i squelched my dunhill lights

into orange glass and tin shaped

ashtray 재떨이

i loved it as i



remembered you

dark long haired beautiful

as if vibrant

through time's window

pre sleep

pre our waking

and held

everything over there

and here

inside my ever waking

ever mounting

ever rising

ever growing



heart of truly ever green



kim thompson seoul. s.korea 28 may sat 10.23

dare...

“I awoke and at times birds fled and migrated /that had been sleeping in your soul.” -- Neruda



i watched

as wind flew out from your center

a crash of wings

a crash of claw and beaks

(i have seen crows mourn their brethren)

(what this thing is now

i do not dare to

name it

i cast my eyes down to the earth

where my hand rests trembling)



half of my self

is still over on the other side

of all the unknown waves that sing out from the depths

where mermaids swoon

and the leviathan still roam



my body sits here planted

before a metal rectangle with plastic

and wires

for guts

my feet one footed on a metal bar

and the other resting 'hind it

legs crossed

i do not dare to call out into

what should not yet be

uncrossed



a black fly stealths its way in

taunting

"i know

i know

do you?"

and these birds are

gossiping about what it is

im

thinking



there is sunlight in the alley

and invisible utterances of

flutters through the

"interweb(s)"



"yes you must"

i mouth to j.alfred prufrock

but he just rolls his trousers

eats a peach

picks up his coffee spoons

and



flies



out the

room


kim thompson 23 may 2011 seoul s.korea 14.19