In Front of a Flower I Unzip My Trousers and Ask

By Bok Hyo Geun

Translated by Rodney E. Tyson & Hong Eun-Taek

The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism, 4(4), p. 249. Winter 2001.


In a big hurry
I unzip my trousers in the corner of a flower bed

In front of the feeble stream of urine
One flower is smiling beautifully

The flower surely must be the genitals of a tree
Does the flower also look upon mine as beautiful?

I call the tree's a flower
And the flower calls me a penis


The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism | Curriculum Vitae