HARO LEE
The Two Acts of Being Alone
Act II:
Exit stage right, and there
is souring.
Alone sours. Unspeaking is spoiling you.
You practise television,
continue to ferment as
the lovers on TV are
lonely, too, but they find each other.
It is an oil painting quiet.
Artists have painted these revolutions before–
Greek rape, war, sunflowers, hentai.
They are just as quiet as you.
You, with your front-facing camera,
will also paint this: to stay alive
in a pandemic. You grieve.
You change. You do so beautifully, too.
Haro Lee lives in South Korea with her grandmother. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, Zone 3 Press, The Offing, The Indianapolis Review, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of Epiphany Magazine’s Breakout 8 Writers Prize. You can find her @pilnyeosdaughter.