I’m doing something
I said I wouldn’t
when I first noticed how commonly
grave mounds are scattered across
the wooded hillsides of Korea,
I am eating lunch on someone’s grave.
Steep climb up from busy street,
creepers and pines cleared away
from slanted mound.
Never any lack of dragonflies
to talk to, bird song,
the muted murmur of traffic
and an amplified voice extolling sports
or some brand of soy sauce.
I do not wish to offend,
I don’t know the customs here,
but I suspect the dead
are glad of a little company.
A hard slog uphill to get here,
I doubt anyone will find me
sharing my lunch with their grandmother.
A light wind stirs the trees.
Dried leaves falling through branches
clatter like speech.

***

David Thornbrugh currently writes from South Korea, where he teaches English in a National University. He writes to push back the darkness a little bit at a time, in the same flighty manner as lightning bugs. He has been published in numerous small press journals, and once wrote the questions for a geography textbook. He prefers multiple choice questions to True/False.