The Day Alan Didn't Come

This old apartment over 60 years old

The narrow parking lot at the back

is always messy:

scattered pebbles,

brawny weed,

broken pieces of flower,

Mulberry fruits that have fallen to the ground

and have been crushed,

fallen leaves,

And Alan's old friend,

there was an old tree

A tree has no name,

the bark is all peeled off

Few living tree branches,

All sorts of scars and filth in the stem

stinks but

Alan loves this old friend: everyone hates

From a very young age

He climbed this tree, played, and ate the fruit

his own heart that had hugged it

he used to show it with a smile

Even in the big typhoon that hit

New Jersey a few years ago,

that is not broken but

In the weak wind that blew lately

One of the three remaining

broke and fell to the ground

wrecked upstairs luxury car

Alan made up his mind

And a truck to cut down trees today

People came late in the afternoon.

I went out

parked the car in the parking lot

in the night

And looking at the disappeared tree,

the barely remaining stump

I took a picture and sent it to Alan

even if it's a small thing

from Brooklyn, New York to here in New Jersey

ran to this place

Alan did not come today.

he only sent emoticon that shed tears

The old tree presented us

with a clean and widened parking lot.

Getting out of the car

my wife told me.

'We won't be able to hear the birdsong

in the morning anymore'.

Yonah Jeong