In September,
with the Chuseok full moon suspended above the waves,
She asked the Songjiho sea to swallow her.
Salty tears and inky seawater,
Three days dragged into three months,
The trace of your fingers only ghosting
the skin on the back of her neck now, and
silence when she turns, fabricating your eyes.
She willed the waves to end their curse,
dissolve her into their foam for daring to
exchange her soul for one night
in tangled sheets with you
and then radio silence: the static crackle
of every unrequited sigh
and stolen voice.
She tried to sink beneath,
but the unforgiving sea
spat her back out, your fingers
still clinging to her tousled hair.
In October,
with the waxing crescent dangling above Achasan,
She longs to inhale life on Itaewon's swarming streets,
the Hallowe'en mele of costumes and music pounding out of bars.
She dissolves the stain of you from her skin
in Seoul's anonymous stream,
But elbows and unknown breath sweep her along in
undulating waves of frenzied voices, a panic-fuelled tide,
her feet no longer on the seabed; swallowed by
limbs and hips and frantic boots; night sky fragments
suck her breath, as the waves devour her.
Pressure on her neck where your lips
once bruised her, and then nothing,
except the hiss of her body dissolving
into the foam of the waves.
And she wonders,
when she had decided to live,
why your fingers in her hair
cannot drag her back this time.
YOU ARE READING
Dark Tide
Hayran KurguSequel to 'Sea' It is one year on from her chance meeting with Jungkook on the Goseong coast, and the last thing she expected was that they would meet again in Seoul. Dramatic changes have taken place for both of them, and now they harbour secrets u...
