Mommy's Expansion
By Kim Hyesoon
Translated by Don Mee Choi
She’s a white rabbit buried in snow
White sheets white pillows nice nightie my mommy
White rabbit lying still under the snow with its paws crossed
Her ears that don’t listen to anything have grown up
When I go near them, they become filthy clouds
Like falling snowflakes
like fog on the river
Mommy’s a bunny that can’t be held
Human vegetable—is this term meant to insult or praise plants?
Mommy walks the hospital hallway filled with the souls of human vegetables
Long, long ago there lived a genius girl
She grew old and turned into a white bunny in her bed
What’s your name? I forgot, she can barely speak
She became disabled and snow-white, growing wider and wider
What will we become after we grow up fierce?
We pull out the whitest-white bunny from under the blanket and shake it
Notes:
Read the Korean-language version, "엄마의 팽창."
Kim Hyesoon, "Mommy's Expansion" (Tr. by Don Mee Choi) from Phantom Pain Wings. Copyright © 2023 by Kim Hyesoon. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
