[Afternoon Poem] March / Shin Deokryong

You have come

I was straightening my aching back

You came like a thief, silently slipping in without a sound. The small beak constantly pecking as if I am not even in your mind, the brown wing tips, the black eyes I meet every time you turn your head?all familiar colors. Your busy movements are like a painting under the blazing sun. For a brief moment, I find the shade of grass that is not yet there. Just a small, tender lip touched the furrowed field, but I know because both earlobes are tickling. It is an invitation to play together, so I do not ask where you came from.

■ This winter is unusually warm. Still, I often feel impatient, longing for spring already. In just over a month, Sansuyu (Cornus officinalis) and Maehwa (Japanese apricot) will bloom, followed by Magnolia, Forsythia, and Lilac in succession. Or perhaps they are already blooming. When I look at the trees, at the winter buds plump on every branch, I think so. I think that inside them, spring sunshine, spring breeze, and spring rain are all fully settled. Perhaps the reason a small bird, whose name I cannot know, busily flits from tree to tree all day is because it has read the spring quietly nestled beneath the last day of the lunar year. ? Poet Chaesangwoo