Seoul. Hong-je Stn. 2:00 am.
a drunk salaryman in baggy gray suit
buys a meal replacement bar
from the vending machine
yells at some teenagers
throws up and
asks me to be his very best friend
Seoul. Sinchon Stn. 2:12 am.
a man with gray permed hair
and a neatly folded newspaper
giggles, coughs, belts out a song
when the train arrives
he is sitting on the subway stairs
crying into his hands
turns out he did not hate my way of life
I was living in the Emirates on 9/11.
My inbox was full (mostly Warden Messages
from the US consulate in Dubai) but
I couldn’t get through on the phone to
anyone back in Arlington. The vice
president came to my office (I was
surprised she actually knew where
it was) and assured me that the
corporation was offering its full
support, though I was never told
exactly what that was supposed
to mean. When I got home from
work there were armed guards
outside my apartment tower
and my husband, like everyone else
was hypnotized by the TV news.
A few hours later a young Emirati
was arrested in front of the Hard
Rock Café. He’d been firing a rifle
at buildings, cars, sand hills
piles of broken concrete and
rebar. The security threat
was reevaluated, the consulate
sent out additional warnings
memos from the vice president’s
office reaffirmed their support, more
guards appeared in the car park
and we huddled in The Bunker over
stale beer and a Spandexed Filipino cover
band. They laundered money through
Emirati banks. Some of the hijackers
were Emirati. There’s going to be
a curfew. The next day we learned
that the man who shot up the Hard
Rock had recently failed his college
entrance exams, for the second time
and his grandfather had just died. It
had nothing to do with 9/11, anti-
Americanism or me.
Seoul. Jichuk Stn. 2:43 am.
a thin man in turtleneck
brings up phlegm, spits
onto the platform, puts his arm
around the steel support
beam and urinates
over the train tracks
Seoul. Apgujeong Stn. 3:06 am.
bent-backed woman with a
plastic bag of root vegetables
shuffles down the staircase
one of her bedroom slippers
is coming off
she stops for a moment to get it back on
