Flame

I want to say you are the burn-off

The black ash that glows when you smile

Warm and tender, broken

By last year, and the year before
I have lost again

And I get filled up by your fire

Though it be far-off and pointless

Just your burning, ambitious soul,

Though it be simple electricity

Though it just be the kindling

I grow near.  

Lamp

You come in the night

A warm, still lamp

Humid and smokey

Fiery orange like candles,

Rain in the darkness

Tiny footsteps on a tin roof

Thousands of reminders,

By dreams I have

Rediscovered your light

Quietly I hold it,

Though my arms do not

Embrace you.


-A.K.-

Under Obligation

In the blood red glow of brake lights
I study your ashen skin
And damp dark eyes
Night settles with the cold fog
Mind your white shirt
Straighten your tie
In a black car you slip away
From the mindless babble
Voices in the dirty air
I dissolve and re-imagine you
Dressed in silk, or
Dressed in BDUs
How could your form fill
Such a large cavity
At only twenty years?
How could your body absorb
Alcohol and gunshots,
When you are still a child?

-A.K.-

Inland (Winter)

I want to meet you before dawn
When it is cold and quiet,
And the sun sleeps below the ocean
Shining on another land,
Waves crashing in the silence
Salt in your hair, hair in your eyes
Dark as the sky
Before it bleeds blue, color
Seeping up from the sea,
And the city lights, in the distance, blink out
While your heartbeat is calm,
Each slow, quiet breath
Brings your chest close, warmth against me
In the frozen air, in the bitter wind
Your chapped lips and dry skin
Taste like the ocean,
Last night's soju, haemulpajeon,
Sea brine.

-A.K.-