apothecary of cheongdam-dong

have you ever seen nurses with lips

tinted peach and rose and effervescent pink

pour out hibiscus tea? i thought those lips

could have used a little more redness

though the means of how the blood gets there

doesn’t actually matter

she read my mind and said

blood is thicker than water

made me a hot ginseng root smoothie on the rocks

toasted to my health, laughing at a tragedy.

if my tongue was familiar with kissing criminals

i might have made less of a face

it’s like swapping teeth with a wax devil

like toasting with lamb’s life

a drink to my health

what a joke

how about this

toast to every dissolved candle

toast to fat broken crayons

cheers to the happy memories

you can’t bring yourself to face

every slapsticking dose of

sun and smog and song

makes me think this is the only city where

people know how to keep the loneliness locked away

i pressed up against the window

people grabbing taxis and shopping bags down below

i don’t know how to hail a taxi

i don’t know how to be a consumer

(a parasite maybe)

but i do know how to steal

and so with that same smudged palm

i steal six cough drops. i cut my tongue.

i bled and bled and thought of the witch

who gave and gave sweets to the sweet

tooth to heart, blood to tongue

water to peach trees and thornbushes