Near the seabed
of my sea realm,

a jade bracelet slips
off in the depths.

Desire is not
a handcuff.

In between Seoul
and America,

I was surfacing—air
bubbles,

disappearing.
Before a not

exactly
benevolent

captor claimed my kiss
erased one's

memory—
the warped problem

was only his. His son
jerked

at my curving
in a hotel pool

in his game
called Shark.

The captor insisted
I take his last name.

Red clay
and sea stars—

my psychic
materials

rebelled
against a dense

lure. The captor
disclosed he

would like to end
with heroin

and that my teenage
skin would never

be more attractive.
His smoke clung.

Then, I did not
come closer.

I swam, a swift
pink blush, towards

my unharmed
underwater

sounds—a gap unblurred
in the rains of

edible figs.
 

—Bo Hee Moon

Note: This poem includes and alters language that appears in the chapter “Legend Sea: of the Mermaids Blue in South Korean folklore and popular culture” by Sarah Keith and Sung-Ae Lee, appearing in Scaled for Success: The Internationalisation of the Mermaid, principally authored and edited by Philip Hayward.

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