Two Years
and just like that
like when it rains
and the sun’s out
was like that
out of nowhere
two years
she gave me back
two years
and it’s common knowledge
to her
like kimchi with each meal
but wholly-cow alien to me
and I’m sitting there
but am I really there
in that café atmosphere
people chomping their pastries and sipping their drug
a child whining, silverware dropping
“what … wait a minute, what …
what did you say … can you repeat that?”
and she does
with the patience she affords her children
“you see, in Korea, when a baby is first born …
a year is added right then. And then when it turns January 1,
we add another year to that.”
I forget what else she said
later on, I show her the only photo I have
and she tells me I look like I’m one
that I was born in 1972
even though my birth certificate from Korea has 1970
you walk around your whole life
with questions you’ll never have answered
lines on a sheet of paper left empty
and they still have my file at the orphanage
but haven’t the information to fill the blanks
so, two years
whether it’s really true or not
I’ll take it
TL