Written by Min-Jun
The grass wraps around my fingers,
begging me not to leave.
But now I must go,
though it’s hard to believe.
A month’s worth of joy
replaced by a day’s worth of tears,
Even if I come again,
that won’t be ‘till years.
The flowers in my lovely field,
Wave to me in farewell.
As for my ladybugs and butterflies
In the relieving shadows they dwell.
I go, and cry to my friend,
even after we die,
we’ll be friends to the end.
But I never said goodbye.
She looks at me with a blank stare,
chirps, then flies away.
I start to head home, all alone,
wishing I could stay.
Written by Min-Jun
The narrator is leaving a precious dream behind, readying herself for the cold, hard reality that awaits, beyond the comforts of her imagination. She is entering the reality she seems to be dreading so much, and at the same time, leaving behind a land so comforting. It is only a matter of time before reality catches up to the narrator... In the end, it always does.
When one dreams, time does not exist. He or she is not aware of the hours dragging by while they are in slumber. For all they know, months or days could have passed. In addition, when the narrator suggests that returning to her dream may take years, there are two possible ways she could mean this: One, after waking up, the amount of time until that night could possibly mean the ‘years’ that are referred, of course exaggerated and used as a symbol. Two, having the same, beautiful, perfect dream again could literally take months, or even years, in this case.
The narrator has created her own ‘land of dreams’. From the blushing blue sky to the chocolatey, warm mud. Everything in it is hers, she created it with her own imagination, this wonderland. Leaving it all behind would be more than difficult, especially if it is likely that the narrator may not return any time soon.
Of course, leaving something so amazing behind is painful, and yet saying goodbye would be even harder, which was why the narrator never bothered to do so when she stated that she never said goodbye.
There is a reason the narrator specifically talks to the bird. Seeing birds in a dream represents hope and joy. When the bird flies away, it symbolizes the leaving of the hope and joy, and how the dream is parting from the narrator. Finally, the narrator makes her way, back into reality.
Min-Jun is a 17-year-old literary connoisseur from South Korea. She has taught creative and technical writing as a peer mentor in her school’s writing club and won multiple schools awards for her poetry. Her latest work is “Wishing I Could Stay”.
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