Birdsong
Hyejung Kook
Drinking, sometimes birdsong bubbles
from the right corner of my mouth.
When the bottle’s lip doesn’t
touch mine precisely.
An imperfection. Pressure inside
must equal pressure without.
The air throbs in a wild warble.
But trying to make air sing,
the mouth’s muscles stiffen.
An impediment. I must give up,
let the birds come on their own.
Hyejung Kook’s poetry has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Hyphen Magazine, The Indianapolis Review, Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and wildness, Other works include an essay in The Critical Flame and Flight, a chamber opera libretto. She is a Fulbright grantee and a Kundiman fellow.