A dark red question mark
Rolls along the mountain trail.
Eun Joong Kwon, a poet from Korea, shares her poem
Eun-Joong Kwon, a poet from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, received the Newcomer Award from the literary magazine Simunhak. She is a member of the Korean Writers’ Association and won an award at the 2003 National Sijo Contest. She has also received the Story Literature Award, the Blue Poetry Award, the Eunpyeong Literature Award, and the 2nd Ieodo Literature Award. Her poetry collection includes ‘Picking up Question Marks’.
Picking Up a Question Mark
A dark red question mark
Rolls along the mountain trail.
I reach out to pick it up but pause,
Peering closer—
A single worm,
Its skin dried and motionless,
As black ants swarm around it.
Soil, endlessly dug, yields only darkness.
From the cracks of gravel, firm as walls,
What was it searching for, blind and sightless…
Was its struggle?
Tearing through the earth with fragile flesh,
The only way to survive?
Did it never once wish to defy its fate…?
To break free from devouring dirt
Only to birth fertile soil?
A worm, swallowing barren earth
And spitting out rich loam,
Now drying up,
Its entire body casting forth
A weighty question mark.
***
물음표를 줍다
물음표를 줍다등산로 길목에 구르는
검붉은 물음표 하나
집으려다 멈칫, 들여다본다
피부가 말라 움직이지 못하는
지렁이 한 마리
개미들이 까맣게 모여들고 있다
끝없이 파헤쳐도 어둠뿐인 흙
문을 열면 벽 같은 자갈 틈에서
눈도 없는 몸으로 무엇을 찾으려 했을까
여린 살로 흙을 파헤쳐야 했던 몸부림만이
살아갈 수 있는 유일한 방법이었을까
흙을 헐어 흙을 먹어야만 하는 숙명을
한 번쯤 거부하고 싶진 않았을까
사람들이 버려놓은 박토를 삼켜
옥토를 뱉어내던 지렁이
그가 말라가며 온몸으로 던진
물음표가 무겁다.
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