JAEWON CHANG - POEMS

Jaewon Chang is a high school junior living in the Philippines. His works have been recognized by the Scholastics Art and Writing awards on a national level. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Cleaver Magazine, Austin International Poetry Festival Youth Anthology, National Poetry Writing Month Anthology (2020), Ilanot Review, Passengers Journal, and elsewhere. During his free time, Jaewon enjoys traveling the city on foot.

​Miyeok-guk

​A treat eomma cooked for your birthday,
miyeok and water, no condiments needed.
Its broth, one that men enjoyed, enough
to fulfill minds for weeks. It travelled
households during the time, leaked
between mines and the river of Han,
a prophet uniting all flavors. Some prophets
unite countries, perhaps this could hang
in between. The texture may change,
but the taste snares on the tongue, and for a moment
you will forget about the line dividing your nation.
 

Doljanchi Rituals
​

​1.
Copy appa to your right, sitting cross-legged
in place of a throne, like a king
conducting the order of succession.
Eomma’s hands caress your hips, the way
a person holds onto fireworks before Saehae.
 
2.
When rings are placed through your fingers,
a red hue seeping past the hallmark caked skin,
remind yourself that a ring means innocence
and wealth, a journey without pain.
 
3.
Pick from the cornucopia of objects atop a table:
Perhaps the stethoscope, one that appa wore
in his office, or the abacus, a beginning
of mother’s childhood adventures. Silently
question if they comment on your choice,
hoping you would become a writer
with the pencil you’ve picked.
 
 
 

Hanja Jargon
​

​ 
He is unsure what comes after 3,
四 or perhaps 死, are they not
shaped identical when spoken?
 
One recounts the number of men
he saw through mother’s eyes,
wearing a fedora, standing atop
the landscape of gardenias.
 
Another describes the chrysanthemum,
mother’s only flower in her garden,
I wish to bloom like it, she says,
死 caked in her thoughts.
 
He imagines mother’s sky,
slowly pulling her eyelids upwards.