To My Street

As the heat worms over crippled fields,
Scoured by the rake-blows of long noon winds,
The world, the whole world, is freed of its cold.

Its great fever is how I tell the season’s change
As it spills past its tipping point. And now, look there,
It is bringing all the insane blossoms to my street.

There is no agreement on what color they are.
Liking their fragrance is an opinion.

Suddenly, you laugh at me.
I laugh at how you laugh at me.

Jack Jung is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow. He is a co-translator of Yi Sang: Selected Works (Wave Books 2020), the winner of 2021 MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of Literary Work. He currently teaches at Davidson College.

Published July 15 2023