[Afternoon Poem] Migratory Bird and Shotgun / Juminhyun

Today, I sit side by side with my Iranian friend

and eat halal food together.

She is wearing a hijab,

and I am wearing a long skirt over shorts,

and we sit together watching television.

The lioness, while eating the antelope she killed,

sees her dead cub inside her belly,

and moves the cub, covering it with grass and soil.

As if she has thoughts,

having thoughts means

a bird flies out of the gun.

Today, my friend and I sit side by side, bleeding,

we have hearts, so we are called women.

As if she has no thoughts,

she wears a black hijab,

and said she searched the forest with a gun, hunting migratory birds.

Because her friend laughed and talked with the man next door,

in black-and-white photos, anything

looks like a black stain on white snow,

white stains and long silences

are all sounds that disappear after being fired,

her hijab is black,

my skirt is white,

we sit side by side

and eat the food permitted in this world.

We make popguns from twigs

and start hitting leaves,

the falling leaves look like flying birds,

and we laugh without thinking.

When she begins to sing softly,

words start to appear on the soles of my feet.

■ How horrific, the word 'hunting'! That one had no choice but to 'hunt' a friend! And just because "her friend laughed and talked with the man next door," in other words, simply because she is a woman! But is such 'hunting' really happening only in distant foreign lands? No, it is not. Absolutely not. According to the poet’s own note, "In Iran, women are legally prohibited from singing in public places." Although the degree may differ, shouldn’t we say Korea is no different? Who would dare to read the words written on their soles without fear? ? Poet Chaesangwoo