Arari
아라리
June 19, 2021
After finishing the long ritual, we returned to Bukshil.
I hummed Jeongseon Arirang the whole time.
Had Grandma forgotten Bukshil, the place of her lifetime?
Strangely and sadly, both Grandma and Grandpa suffered from the same illness.
With fragile memories, they seemed to be searching for a distant, forgotten love.
Like climbing the steep valleys of Jeongseon, they searched beyond winding hills for their first love—
a love from a place where nothing had a name.
Arariyo.
In the Bukshil Jugong apartment, everything remained just as it was.
A clean microwave, a new rice cooker, the shampoo Grandma used,
and by the bedside, the words of Jesus.
“I shall not want.”
My family began to take the photo albums from the Bukshil house, one by one.
In them, the dead and the living are gathered together, forever.
아라리
June 19, 2021
After finishing the long ritual, we returned to Bukshil.
I hummed Jeongseon Arirang the whole time.
Had Grandma forgotten Bukshil, the place of her lifetime?
Strangely and sadly, both Grandma and Grandpa suffered from the same illness.
With fragile memories, they seemed to be searching for a distant, forgotten love.
Like climbing the steep valleys of Jeongseon, they searched beyond winding hills for their first love—
a love from a place where nothing had a name.
Arariyo.
In the Bukshil Jugong apartment, everything remained just as it was.
A clean microwave, a new rice cooker, the shampoo Grandma used,
and by the bedside, the words of Jesus.
“I shall not want.”
My family began to take the photo albums from the Bukshil house, one by one.
In them, the dead and the living are gathered together, forever.