女 (Woman)
See what she’s sacrificed
slipping in and out of skins
a thousand unlived lives wait in her mind ‒
she could have been anyone; she chose to be no-one for you
In the blue-lit nights, effervescent with thunder
she bared her skin under the ever-watchful stars
as they rode fiery chariots of eternal vigilance
she went gently into the stranger’s arms: she did this for you
The stranger from the movie cinema
she never even got a glimpse of him before she was his
she rode the cold waves of love that couldn’t be chosen
she loved someone she didn’t, so that she could love someone she did
Look what she’s done
the prettiest girl in Bak Shek; she could have run away
with any man she chose, she could have kissed him
and they could have escaped from the thunder and light and noise
They could have lived together; free spirits
roaming the fields, searching together for forgotten snippets
of thoughts and feelings and love and this way, she never would have
become an empty ghost; doing laundry forever
You. She carried you inside of her
knitted her sinew and marrow into a whole new being
just like her mother and her grandmother and everyone before her
all living ghosts; pouring their spirit into vessels that would never return it.
