Lauren Hyunseo Cho, Seoul, South Korea
Gatekeeper of an alluring mirage,
A turtle floats
Restless in the tide.
Look closely and meet
Its gaze,
Haunted and lovely, fractured
Kaleidoscopes;
Look closer and notice
Manufactured stitches,
Splinters in its smile, shards of sacrilege
(Don’t be so careless
When you rip them out);
Look closer still and see the hollowed
Mutilation of its vessel, spears
Piercing its throat,
Poisoned with gilded
Intent.
Gather the turtle in your hands
As it cries its sullied
Song of the sea.
Sorrow pours into you like leaking
Oil, embracing you in its ugly
Net.
The water engulfing you is warmer
Than it should be.
Lauren Hyunseo Cho is a published poet based in Seoul, South Korea. She has her poems forthcoming, pending on editorial review, or published in CrashTest Magazine, Teen Ink, Ice Lolly Review, LiveWire, and more. She is interested in issues of multicultural advocacy, feminism, and philosophy. Her love for writing serves to produce poems and stories of her take on these ideas.