Removing your clothes like old newsprint
I lay you down raw on a damp mattress and look down on you.
Your gnarled hands and feet, that have lost their vigor,
the traces of skinny limbs and ribs, how weary they look.
I’m sorry.
Using you, I earned a living,
got a woman and started a family but
the only things left are stale sweat and a nightmare road.
Again I laid you, docile,
in a secluded corner of unfamiliar ground.
What else could I do?
I’m not saying there were no good days, yet
there’s little hope I can ever pay even a meager wage for your labors.
Now I’m wondering if I would like to go away quietly,
simply leaving you sleeping here.
What about it, body?
Kim Sa-in (b. 1955) was born in Boeun, North Chungcheong Province and studied Korean Literature in Seoul National University. He has published two volumes of poetry, Letter Written at Night (1987) and Quietly Liking (2006). His early poems were marked by the yearning for democracy and justice in the face of social injustice, and his recent poems strive for lyrical depth through compassion and sympathy with the world. He is the recipient of Hyundae Literary Award (2005) and Daesan Literary Award (2006) and now teaches creative writing at Dongduk Women’s University. As for him, writing poetry is to question things tirelessly and the poet is not just a questioner but also the person who tries to answer the questions and put the answers into practice.
