Late fall with cold chill
brown eyes and ice melt to make
a strong winter scene.
Ajuma comes out
to invite me to drink tea.
"Thank you, no," I say.
"I want right sunlight
more than my comfort right now."
Cold hands warm heart waits
"Are you satisfied...
even with frozen fingers?"
My smile warms her house.
An ajumma is a married Korean woman, or one of marriageable age. She is neither a young unmarried woman (agassi) or a grandmother (halmoni) but occupies her own status. It is generally used as a respectful term (and may have originally meant "wife of a professor"), since in Korea referring to an elder by name without a title is socially unacceptable, but the term also has mildly pejorative associations of low status and a pushy nature. The following entry is from the online Urban Dictionary: "There are actually 3 genders existent in Korea: male, female, and ajumma. The female, in a marriage, is usually reborn to be an ajumma, although very impolite women can be referred to as and eventually turn into an ajumma."
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