Salmon caught by fishing pole
-Coming Home-

Thomas Kim(김태수) / Translated by Phillip Lee (이 필립)


Frozen dregs buried deep in me, trying to melt it with the sunshine, I stand by the river bank.

A group of salmon is “coming home” with blossoming water flowers behind them, trying to rest themselves under the roots of “reincarnation.”

Struggling to survive, they quietly conquer the angry currents; their stomachs intertwined with the whiteness of the river water and their backs became bruised blue by the ocean’s tides.

Shattered but re-committing, following the almost-forgotten tiny calling.

Holding onto the non-drying flow, they carefully maneuver their fins; they withstood this unfamiliar world.

Maybe, feeling their destiny of no return, and in the midst of the mundane daily lives, and for the sake of “coming” lives, they, without hesitance, bite the lure of a fishing pole.

In order to become the “offering” of the fisherman, they nonchalantly throw themselves in the air after racing to live through death…

When the happy facial complexion gets tickled by the wind, times gone past float atop like a mirage.

The cobalt sky penetrates their eyes

A new sky is opening up.