W. B. S. – June Lee Kwon

I lean my back against the kitchen counter. This is green, I know this green.

His eyes are small, heavy, narrowed by his time. I watch his teeth weaken, barely upholding his lips. A story echoes out of his lips:
“We invented your characters”

I see his characters, a loyal lone man. I pull his cheek to my cheek. We feel his thin breath, heartbeats. What am I to you, is a sad question. This is pink, I know this pink.

Like any other night, I give this my all:
My warmth, my breaking, my silence.
The car breaks hard, a red skinny fox runs fast into the night.

On my way back home the dark forest is warm. I can lay my head out the car window, smell the leaves and mud. In the arms of my darkness, I meet him in his youth. He is a moral man, we all admit, a just man, just a man.

War is about money, war is about killing. I know he’s given his all to his desk:
His silence, his breaking, his warmth.
Orders, brothers, the nation and a bed.
They deserved his all, and, he is a good man, I am told.

I stand alone in the intersection. This is where we are blessed to become the light. My king smiles gently upon my heart. I breathe in our broken wall, a border with bored men, dried blood, and the old girls with twisted teeth.

The story goes on and on, echoes through many baby pink lips:
“He is a good man”
“He is a good man”
Yes, he is.
“He is a good man.”

I lean my head against the night sky. Shadows of my leaves flutter in the dark. This is dark blue, I know this dark blue.

Tonight:
We lean our back against the night,
and we sleep,
warm,
broken,
and silent.

 

June Lee Kwon received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Adelphi University. Her clinical work takes place in her private practice in lower Manhattan, and at Stress and Trauma Evaluation and Psychological Services in Brooklyn. She supervises doctoral students for Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University and mentors early career psychologists through The Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39) of the American Psychological Association. She is a candidate at NYU Postdoctoral Program of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. At night, she’s a storyteller and a story-consumer. She writes about psychoanalytic theories, gender, bodies, South Korean and American diaspora, money, privilege, love, and loss.

 

Photo credit: N. Moyrak (Pexels)