That feeling of my soul getting yanked

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

Bibliographical info

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)

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