Wet Nurse
(North Korea, 1938)
1


I wish I could remember
what happened to me
when I claimed life on earth.


I only know what I was told,
that my mother had breast surgery
after the birth of my first brother.


My grandma searched for 
a mother with a newly arrived 
baby of her own, her breast dripping
with milk, who could move in.
but no such luck.



2


Off I went to a house 
with a thatched roof on a farm, 
to be nursed at a woman’s breast,
who did not bear me.


Seventy years have gone by
since I was brought back home.


Sometimes I lie awake,
trying to evoke the image of the woman
who let me suck her breast
of my breast mate 
who had to share his milk with me.


3


A smell of cut grass entices a baby girl
to crawl down the open veranda
into the front yard,
red peppers drying on a straw mat.


A frightened wet nurse 
beckons her to come back
her appeal eludes the baby.


She continues to wander out
maybe in search of a meadow,
tranquil and green, on which to kneel,
looking quite forlorn
but happy with a tender woman.
who never yells or spanks her.


The baby girl was home with her.


4


I smile at this scene
Feels true, whether it is or not.


No need to remember her face
her kindness makes my heart warm
and puts me to sleep
after all these years.

Leaving Home
(winter of 1945)


One winter daybreak, long ago
my grandmother pulled me away 
from the house where I grew up
in North Korea
hastening me to walk
with a little knapsack on my back
in the company of my brothers and sister.


Stunned and frightened
I asked my grandmother
“Where are we going?”
“To the south.”
“What’s in the south?”
“Democracy”
“Whatever democracy is,
I don’t want it. I want to stay here.”
I was seven then.


We walked on
sadness in my heart, but never bitterness
as my house vanished
the sun blazing over the hills and streets
I did not know what events 
would await me. 


Crossing over what grown-ups called
the 38^th parallel 
I did not float in joy
I saw only the dazzling darkness.


After all these years
in the land across the ocean
that winter morning never forgotten.


But something miraculous happened
I found my soul mate
my home in life and in death.

Page 3

© Copyright, 2013, Dai Sil Kim-Gibson.
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