Before you know it –

It will be autumn in Korea
The green leaves that sprung up and out from the earth
Will fall back to the earth
Taking the stifling steam bath with it
And you will be renewed.

Before you know it –

It will be winter
And by then you will know if
You’ve chosen to stay in Korea
Or finally, after over 10 years,
Put it to bed for good and always.

Before you know it –

You will be somewhere else,
Be it February 2014,
Deep in the withering Busan summer,
or another year gone.
What then? Before you know it, you’ll know.

Before you know it –

It will be six months, Aug. 2, 2013.
An unthinkable accomplishment after 2005, 2010, where hours clung
like mud to shoes in a field drenched for an Ansan Valley rock concert.
An unattainable goal built up in your small ego-dragging mind,
That made it bigger than it ever needed to be.
It wasn’t. And, it is.

Before you know it –

You’ll be asking yourself where did the time go,
But, hopefully you will not ask,
what could have been.