Haro Lee

Boatman

Haro Lee

You are passed down the riverbed passed in fist and foot in belly and arse in unkissed scalp.

All day your breaths tip you from side to side, letting a little water into your boat, bursting a little dam between her legs.

And then, the canal splits in blood and water and they can see your crown. Welcome, love, to your first resurrection.

Your lips take her milk and she notices how the ends of your hair hold pohutukawa in full bloom. Bees carry their honey towards you.

Haro Lee is a Korean poet who teaches English in South Korea. Her work has been published and is forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, Zone 3 Press, The Offing, The Indianapolis Review, The Texas Review, Anhinga Press, RHINO Poetry, Dryland Lit, and Ghost City Press, among others. She was also the recipient of Epiphany Magazine’s Breakout 8 Writers Prize.