Poet Ms. Yeon Myung-ji began her literary career in 2013 by publishing “Gashibi” with Minerva Publishing. She then published “Sitting Like an Apple” and “Seventeen Miss Marco Polo.” She won the 2023 Homi Literary Award and the Gyeongbuk Ilbo Cheongsong Guesthouse Literary Award.
She is a Vice President of Korean Association of World Literature.
THE MAGICIAN WEARS A HAT
The magician who cut off the rhino’s horn and wore it on his head,
borrows the wings of a penguin to stroke the grain of a green apple.
Click — he opens the door of the heart and steps inside.
Cut half of your experienced time, tap its side gently.
Clothe each seed with imagination.
Lift the shade, as unseen hours slowly open their eyes.
Be mindful of the tears between a captivating back and its gap.
The desert wind blows, carving the wall of the heart.
Now and then, an unexpected intent strikes true, and hunger becomes a longing.
At the center of life’s commotion, the shoulder of a fallen apple trembles.
Secretly, the magician covets the art book of Dalí
hidden inside his hat.
On days when his neck aches from drying the tendons of collision,
he stands Gala from the drawer on a plate.
Shall we stir the hardening spring water with the horn of a rhinoceros?
Shall we borrow the magician’s hat and wear it for ten months?
Who knows—on New Year’s Day, in the morning paper,
we might read the smile of a ripened red apple.
