RA HEE-DUK
WEARING PINK SHOES
I gave myself to the music; my feet slid away and I began to cast off time. Thread unraveling within me slid sul-sul-sul-sul across the threshold. Feet danced past the bakery, past the laundry, past the park, past the local tong office, past your table and bed, past the graves and the grassy fields. They did not return. What now? “Keep dancing!” the world cried. Though my legs be threatened with amputation, I can still give myself completely to the music. Remember I’m wearing my snug pink shoes. Do you hear the melody in my blood? Do you hear the water crossing the embankment? I’m at liberty to go where I please, but I go nowhere. The sun does not set here no matter how I dance. The bobbin within unravels, endlessly, like water flowing over the embankment. Threads tangle, roads tangle. Axe raised, the city rushes at me, trying to capture me, but I cannot stop dancing because of pink shoes I put on so long ago, somnolent for far too long.
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Ra Hee-duk was born in 1966. She made her literary debut in 1989 when she was named winner of the annual spring literary contest sponsored by the The joongang Ilbo. Her poetry collections include “To the Root, It Is Not Far Away” and “The Vanished Palm”. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Kim Su-yeong Literature Prize. She teaches creative writing at Chosun University.
176 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES