LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
When Will the Adults Come
Many days and many years
of moonlit mornings and sunlit nights have passed
Cattle and horses broke out of their pens and tore the house apart
even taking over the master bedroom
The rooster became the hen
white cloth blackened
while ten, twenty, one hundred, one thousand suns sizzled in the sky
and big floods and big fires came one after another
leaving everything in shambles
leaving only us in the world
with Dad gone away
and Mom gone away looking for Dad
I comfort my crying baby sibling to sleep
Just ten more nights and Mommy and Daddy will come
Hush little baby don’t you cry
The little kitty is already dead
Hush little baby don’t you cry
Tucking them in and comforting them
and singing them a lullaby
But when will the adults come
for ten nights and twenty nights have passed
and countless ten nights have passed
Oxen Dream
On nights when the ox comes to me
my heart stirs so that I cannot sleep
On nights when the ox wearing arrowroot blossoms tiger lilies and even daylilies on its horns
comes to me
I cannot curl my leaves like a silk tree
nor shut my doors like a squash blossom and sleep
Aigo you came all this way to come back home
Mom comes out of the kitchen and caresses the ox
Dad quietly runs a besom along the ox’s back
then boils cattle feed with plenty of soybean pods and rice bran
On nights when the ox comes to our house
the light stays on in the barn all night
the yard glows bright as broad daylight
and word is quickly sent to the owners that the ox is here
for shouldn’t the ox stay the night seeing as it came back home
On nights when the ox that was sold off to Jeombo’s in the upper village comes back home
On nights when the ox comes to me
with my dead Mother and Father in tow—
like a prickly-ash tree peppered with swallowtails
my heart sways so that I cannot sleep
like a jar holding a live carp
my heart ripples so that I cannot sleep
Translator 번역가 소개
Gongmin
Gongmin is a writer, translator, and activist based in Jeju, Korea. They translated Gye Mihyun’s poetry collection, The Fall of the Hyuns, as well as other literary works such as Scar Lover by Harry Crews and Why Vegan by Peter Singer. Their writing moves between language, anti-speciesism, otherness, antinormativity, and nonhuman entities, and they published the short story “Nose” in Jaeum & Moeum. They are currently a member of the Ant Bee Collective.
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