Because I'll Be Back Tomorrow

I left my easel

at Biwon, the garden of Changdeokgung Palace.

The canvas too

I left in their keeping.

Only the paint box

went back and forth in my hand.

When the day ended

I set the painting

on the window ledge of the Buyongjeong pavilion.

So the wet paint would touch nothing.

So it would not slip.

From below

I looked once more.

It was a painting not yet finished.

“You're leaving it?”

“Yes.”

I

picked up the paint box.

“I'll be back tomorrow.”

The next day

I walked the same road

and stood before the painting again.

What was good yesterday

looked different in the morning.

Fix one place

and another showed.

When evening came

I set it on the ledge again.

One day

the painting was finished.

I took it down from the ledge

and carried it out.

The next morning.

Again

I stood before Buyongjeong

with the paint box in my hand.

I looked up

at the ledge first.

Where the painting had been

light had come.