The Single Unwed Mothers’ House

Bo Hee Moon 

Being parted 

from her baby,
a fig split 

in two, I listen
for the ocean, 

for my birth
mother’s voice 

and the voice of
her mother, her
mother, her
mother. 

The body says
everything. 

I hear the same song in
Seoul 

as in Sedona, 
A stone
drops
 
into the creek. 
I’ll love my daughter
 
no matter what,
listening to her
 
on the couch, eating the
last bowl of winter 

soup, some parsley,
some bread. I’ll let her 

write about me, my private
space, all my inevitable 

mistakes, it’s her story. 

 

Bo Hee Moon is an adoptee from South Korea. Her poems have appeared in CutBank, Radar, Redivider, the Offing, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. 

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