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The following is a poem by Matthew Zapruder set to music by composer Missy Mazzoli. See a conversation between the two here.
KOREA
by Matthew Zapruder
It is very early
the apartment is cold
Sarah is still asleep
I ask myself
if I am not
a garbage man
why am I
awake in the world
I guess to the side
of the large
rattling green
truck sized worry
gathering all these
beautiful theories
and feelings
to cling
when the sky
gets lighter
I will try
in my desk chair
to sort them
when I first
turned on the light
I saw a fruit fly
like a tiny
weightless black
satellite orbiting
nothing above the sink
so like I read
in some magazine
I filled two plastic
containers with
a little vinegar
and poked holes
in saran wrap
to catch it before
it finds another
and breeds
like last summer
when for weeks
laughing and angry
we chased them
around the apartment
eager to amputate
what was if one
can call it that
their dream to live
with their ten
thousand children
in a mango
or bagel that rolled
behind the refrigerator
for hours I sit
in the kitchen
and watch the traps
on the radio I hear
a solemn voice
repeat war games
in the yellow sea
on a map with my finger
I trace the kingdom
of Korea
it looks like a blue
friendly seahorse
ready for gentle
locomotion
hello lord
sorry I woke you
because my plans
are important to me
and I need things
no one can buy
and don’t even know
what they are
I know I belong
in this new dark age