On a Korean soap opera, a prince who’s been transported to the present day
is going to help sell strawberries by dancing in a bunny suit
for a tomboy wearing a high bun (who’s lost her money to a villainous sister).
Bobble-headed and hollow bellied, he moves like he is blindfolded
and on a fast treadmill (like he’s in love but doesn’t know it yet).
He refuses rest or water (he is pursued by fate)
and collapses. He used his body everyone says in translation,
as if love is the process of chipping away from the whole.
as if love is measured by the rate we spend our finite energy.
The tomboy’s shorts rise to reveal colt-like legs,
her hair tumbles to her shoulders (a demure beauty at last),
and the strawberries are eaten down to their sour edges.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 17, Issue 2.
Meredith McDonough lives and works in Saint Louis, MO. Her work appears in Off the Coast, Sweetened Water, and Agave. Currently, her poems explore the wild bunch, mythology, and motherhood.
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