14) Genghis Khan*
Wolran Kim
I’m going to visit a relative who I’ve never associated with
Listening to someone else’s beating heart from a transplant
He had been holding on for twenty-five years
Now he is waiting for the surgery after being convicted of liver cancer
A messenger of the other world sat in front of him
Who looked like he just sat up from a coffin
Like the last reading of sentences right before they’re discarded
A hollow body is speaking
He may have two more years if the surgery is successful
But he knows that it is just his greed
With a bulging belly, he seems like a refugee of a developing country
Lost his appetite, his childish dream
His pale English is too fluent
To be saved as a dead file with an unknown nationality
To leave his old wife, who stammers
We never say this is our last time
Bye, see you again
After exactly one week
His news came from the messenger of the other world
But I had trip planned at the time of his funeral
So I’m going to see his dead body
He, who lies like an old doll
Never says anything anymore
The Road to Heaven is only vivid through his halfway-gaping mouth
His golden glasses on his hollow eyes only sparkle
The only present in the past
Blonde messengers of the dead world in black suits
Appear and take him away, like priests
The stammering old wife says his last words were
“I love you,” and she doesn’t stammer any more
People in black go to the restaurant in front of the cemetery
And then, they discuss seriously, the cost of the funeral and grave
I go to Catalina Island
It offers a free boat for birthday people
I step on the gas for ten hours to eat Genghis Khan in Korea town
Because I do not know
About a life that disappeared from the fingertip to infinity
Because I do not know
About a person who passed under my eyes to eternity
Because I already forgot
About him, who left to live the time that never came
*Genghis Khan: A menu in Korean restaurants, consisting of raw meat and fresh vegetables cooked in a boiling beef broth at the table.
