I look outside
On this red day
Of bad bad air
In Seoul and hear
The hum of the
Machine that is
Supposed to clean
It and see the
Ball bounce off
The wall into
The glove of the
Little little girl

Birthmark

What you see
As a birthmark
On my face
Is not always
What it seems
As my mother’s
Only child I swear:
Even twins fight
To the death

On a Rose

Al-Haifa waxed eloquently
On the beauty of the barb
At a distance but did he
Know the pleasures of
Thorns as in the pleasure
Of an unknown lover as
They brush the hair on one’s
Arms, the sigh as they bite
Into flesh? May the Lord
Bless Al-Haifa there is
Pleasure in all things

Epilogue

The branch cut
For fire to keep
Us warm at the
End of a book

Loren Goodman is the author of Famous Americans, selected by W.S. Merwin for the 2002 Yale Series of Younger Poets, and Non-Existent Facts (otata’s bookshelf, 2018), as well as the chapbooks Suppository Writing (The Chuckwagon, 2008) and New Products (Proper Tales Press, 2010). He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English Literature at Yonsei University/Underwood International College in Seoul, Korea, and serves as the UIC Creative Writing Director.