Yi Won Poems

Rather than spread open the morning paper smelling of ink
at dawn I lightly double-click onto the odorless Internet
I click the complimentary PDF that shows me
exactly the image of a printed newspaper page
The KOSDAQ has no wings now
Total short-term foreign debt of 50,000,000,000 dollars
With each click a page of the newspaper turns
I continuously click the world
With a click one world collapses and
another one rises
The sun floats up There's a chip installed in the sun too
I look at a 12-page article: ‘The computer picks up
a wireless signal from my body in which fiber optics carrying
microscopic electrodes have been grafted into my arms' nerve structure.'
and click onto the website of Kevin Warwick who dreams of the first-ever
human robot I am the 28,412th visitor
I have a gene I want to insert too
With my right hand's forefinger moving the mouse around
I click onto my e-mail A message arrived last night also
I click the attached file that k of Toronto has sent
Red roses drip dew from their petals and
Bloom inside a white picket fence
The flowers sent by k haven't wilted
I immediately click on the dialpad of the free Internet phone
I click k's phone number
I become connected across 6589 miles
Even I may be a program that someone's installed
Moving the slippery mouse around with my right hand I
Click on literature I click on periodicals
I click into the April issue of the literary webzine Novel
The ‘Little Prince' on the cover who says ‘The desert is beautiful
because somewhere it's hiding a spring.'
constantly changes the scene around him I open the window a bit more and
click onto the Internet bookstore Aladdin I look at the list of new publications
I click to order Paul Auster's The Music of Chance at a 20% discount
and René Girard's Violence and the Sacred at 15% off
Outside my window mundane affairs bumping around
inside a produce truck in a four-beat rhythm koong-chak koong-chak koong-chak-ja koongchak
I take up the four-beat bongjak music time and
idly looking at the street the truck is on click its map
I follow one of the routes out of Seoul and arrive at
Hwaôm Temple The sound of a wooden bell spreads out from the camellias arrayed
in front of the inner temple Hands together in prayer
I click on one of the 60%-discount coupons for a condo in the Chiri Mountains
Onto my knees under the printer
a coupon drops down like a camellia petal I
click the I attached to the camellia petal
Zero categories and 177 sites come up
as the search result for the word I
But where am I
Searching for I I click each site in order
lunacy movie India and I…splIt
…comIng out…suIng alone…And I, Inc.…
storIes I want to Impart…the earth and I….
I can hear the click of the double-humped camel's hooves

An oasis is nearby
Continuing on I click therefore I am
...

내 몸의 사방에 플러그가
빠져나와 있다
탯줄 같은 그 플러그들을 매단 채
문을 열고 밖으로 나온다
비린 공기가
플러그 끝에 주렁주렁 매달려 있다
곳곳에서 사람들이
몸 밖에 플러그를 덜렁거리며 걸어간다
세계와의 불화가 에너지인 사람들
사이로 공기를 덧입은 돌들이
둥둥 떠다닌다
...

Stone, Up to there solid things and I

Light, Things leaking, stretching my flesh

Wall, Up to there things nudged

Road, Up to there things tossed

Window, Until it doesn't arrive

Surface, Until it wells up

Interior, Until there is no place to fall

Blood, Getting tangled up

Ear, Crawling out

Back, The world losing

Color, Digging up, tearing apart

I, While escaping from the mirror,

in the swamp surprisingly there are so many things to bury

You, Having already escaped from the mirror,

in the air too surprisingly many things are buried

Eye, Breaking, shattering

Star, Tearing

Dream, Soaked in blood

Seed, That which is darkest

Egg, There too undoubtedly silence vehemence

Bone, There too left alone

Hand, There too cracking

Mouth, There too caught

Door, Impetuous, delayed, belated

Body, Shadow revealing its true colors

God, Stuck to fingertips

Flower, Vomit

Water, Boiling

Knife, Swelling up to the throat

White, Fluttering
...

59 Hey there, excuse me

58 Inside the body the body is rotting

57 Where'd you put what you dug out from my body

56 Exhale your last breath

55 The hole is completely filled

54 Spit your last breath

53 The first day of this year began on a Monday

52 The first day of this year was cold all day

51 If you shut your eyes far away I was boiling inside

50 Quickly, come into the shadow

49 ……………

48 Boring

47 It's all the same the same death

46 Lights off lights on

45 A barely visible threshold

44 Bone

43 Flesh

42 Spill your blood

41 Take off your skin

40 Fling your heart

39 Foot

38 Shriveling

37 Hand

36 Shriveling

35 The shadow's quite mushy

34 Before the flesh smolders

33 Before the body escapes from the body

32 Where is here

31 Oil floating in spicy beef soup gone cold

30 Working at job #7

29 Don't remove the insides of the body

28 Barely crying and so on

27 It's hot

26 Inside the shadow, it's hot

25 Crazy, huh

24 Pitch black

23 Outside the body a wailing sound is heard

22 Not permeating and slipping

21 Strip off your skin

20 The steps entering the body are all there

19 You cannot exit from inside the body

18 Spit your last breath

17 Where did the mouth go

16 Where is the voice

15 I am boiling up

14 I am burning

13 One hand's width of door

12 Exactly one hand's width

11 Before it all burns

10 Choose the bones

9 You came too late didn't you night

8 You came too early didn't you darkness

7 Ripples on the Danube River is today's last song

6 Completely draped in wind

5 Don't stop keep flowing

4 O river water

3 Completely draped in wind

2 I am your
...