Hyun
Joo’s Lover
She
brings flowers on Sundays
Places
them in your vase
Her
body a glowing amber lamp
Her
hair red gold against your pillow
She
laughs at your nonsense
Listens
intently to your stories
Cooks
foods you cannot name
Strawberries
in cream for dessert
And
then she loves you again
Laughing
before she kisses you
Knowing
you will not meet
Like
this until next week
Later,
she makes the bed, smoothes out
The
wrinkles, leaves the scent of roses
Although this is "free verse, it is not as free as it appears. Structurally it uses a subtle inverse imagery to emphasize its purpose. It starts with FLOWERS and ends with ROSES; from flowers it goes to PILLOW, before roses it makes the BED; the second stanza LAUGHS and cannot NAME, the third stanza is both LAUGHING and KNOWING. And thus we understand the poem.
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