if I write a poem

will you believe you’re alive

 

I write two poems today

one about your disappearance

 

and another about their protests

I write them together

 

in protest. I write them together side by side

trying to remember if I collected

 

all of my hairs the last time

the time before

 

and the time before that

have my loose ends swayed

 

I ask my second poem about

their time on the streets

 

I ask my second poem don’t regret it

regret nothing. we don’t regret

 

they will not hire you but we don’t regret it

and remember how you did agree

 

on two treats. one sugar,

one whole

 

how you made me feel I could

get into my car and wave

 

goodbye detached from

finales

 

and who am I kidding

the second poem

 

and every protest is—you

the dishes, yesterday’s clippings, every photograph

 

“죽음의 시간은 여기까지이길”

 

Let this be the end

 

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvfor the time of death—

 

***