52) The Hospice Nurse’s Last Will
Wolran Kim
The flowers,like patients who just checked in yesterday
Thrust out of branches in the tree hospital, it is spring
The season of facing death often comes between seasons
My comforting the patients was magic words for me
I still don’t know the meaning of the last
How could I know the difference between knowing and facing
I once missed an incurable disease which would come to me
Thick growth on the barren land, nostalgia as a cancer
Such as a sister of St. Bernard in the Pennine Alps
I pat the holy land of my mind with my palms together
To be the last place to rest for the travelers
I always smiled as the gatekeeper
The bed sheets as neat head towels
Were the snow from the sky covering mountains and streams
For constant sickness in a bed of a lifetime
Waiting for the day of complete recovery
Just like the terminal patients who lay under my exhausted waist
I am finally laying down under your heart
Life, is what I want to answer even though no one asks me
No one ever asks me what it is
In the space of an examination room, the spring flowers
Are flying through the window as if they just woke up from anesthesia