15) Fall Semester
Wolran Kim
I chose the subject, fallen leaves
Even though I read about the sequel of flowers
I never knew why they must fall
The fallen season, holding the wind, is more dazzling
Than the full blooming season
Because the fallen season knows the end of its fate
“The world never goes my way”
Says a girl, swallowing a handful of pills, like M&M’s
In a hospital room, her stomach is washed out
In a mother’s eyes, the fallen season is falling
Even after memorizing all the falling things in one breath
The roots still hide under the deep soil
Holding all the correct answers
A Professor who speaks Hebrew fluently
Testifies to the tragedy of fallen leaves as if they were the Holocaust
The leaves are swimming in the air to cross the winter river
Under the tree that never retired, even after old age
People are burning all the dead leaves
They are having sacrificial rites toward the silent sky
The season cries under shoes
All the dead lush lives, rubbing our ways
The sky-trees turn red in the old campus
Over the life of a young girl with baby fingers
Her life seems like a dry twig
Flowers fall, even though no one knows when they bloomed