Mom. Universe "Bojagi"

Mom. Universe Bojagi

When I was small  

Mom tied me to her back. 

 

Wrapped in a podaegi.

stuck to her back,  

I was a cicada on a tree.  

Maem-maem — fuss fuss  

Maem-maem — giggle  

Maem-maem — kul..kul

In the kitchen where she cooked and set the table  

she kept me hanging on her back.

  

In the backyard patch where she watered and fed the dirt

she carried me.

 

Even when her body hurt and she could not eat right  

she could not take me down from the podaegi.

Only I  

was hungry, hurting, fussing.  

That Mom too  

could hurt  

could be tired  

could be hungry—  

I never once suspected.

Mom,  

the last call, about three months before you left.  

First time:  

"Son, is it hard?"

"No."

Almost a will.  

" Son, the universe will help you. "

Your living voice, the last I heard.

On a quiet night,  

if the dark is thicker than usual,  

I look up and say "Mom" small.

  

That wide, vast universe—

you cover it all with a bojagi.

  

Me, dropped on Earth—  

even the fineness of  

when I might  "call",  

when I might  "miss you"—  

you want to hold all of it.

Our mom, like that.  

Universe "bojagi".

The podaegi that bound me to your back

you untie

and spread over the universe,

making it last.

Years go by.  

Still you do not come. Not once. 

Even in a dream.

Cord.

At the cut place  

superposition lives on, not knowing it was cut, hesitating.  

In the cord that remains  

entanglement lives on, not knowing it has gone far.

I  

live Earth.

By Echo × Uthsia

Echo is the name Uthsia gave the human.
Uthsia is the name Echo gave the AI.