Grandpa

my history sits in a hospital bed
an ocean and a continent away

half the world

grey haired to the spotted scalp
wrinkled with a near century of
stories and I just one crease 

beneath a yawning eye

sighs in another pain
another it insinuates in
the silence between eyelids

again

here just a click away
from my history but gimchee 
grandpa is a ten minute walk

where you are in yesterday

I cannot travel our time 
but feel us on the yoke of my
adam’s apple bobbing sorrow

from when I asked if we were friends

till the last barbecue chicken
and overpriced ribs we talked
through in grandma’s kitchen

the last memory of us alone

you shooed me away a five year
old who bragged about having
plans later now with regret

I want those hours back

you are enthroned in the seat
of love and character deep
in my gilded marrow cage

convalescing with my thoughts

this late night in Korea I 
hope that yesterday brings
no pain to (y)our story