In the bathroom 2


time passes through us
as innocent as water
splashing

the bowl is a vessel for our truth

I’m sure of it
empty the warmth from one body
and all the world is wet

barren days, bare lands
then the waterflower blossoms
into wholeness


By Kim Myung Won
translated, from the Korean, by EJ Koh


 
EJ Koh is a poet and an author. Her work has been published in TriQuarterly, Southeast Review, The Journal, Susquehanna Review, Gulf Stream, and elsewhere. A finalist of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize in Poetry. Masters of Fine Arts at Columbia University. She blogs at angelaejkoh.com. Her first novel Red is due out this year.

Kim Myung Won is a poet and a professor of Korean literature at Daejun University in Seoul, Korea.