That feeling of my soul getting yanked
I wonder where my soul hides when I’m sick
My heart feels as if it’s getting beat up
Is it because the restless ocean is clumping up?
My heart beats regardless of the pain
It beats spewing out red thread like a red spider
A sinkful of red thread gets submerged in water
My heart beats like a girl marathon runner who only had ramen to eat
Maybe the soul of the bald girl in a hospital gown hanging by the
windowsill has come to greet me
When the rose in a vase bleeds on my pupils
a song from the radio wraps a bandage over my eyes
I wonder whether the souls of all the people on earth are connected as one
Kim Hyesoon, “That feeling of my soul getting yanked” from Autobiography of Death. English translation copyright © 2018 by Don Mee Choi. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Source: Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018)