The Sea Is the Haenyeo's Tears

The wide sea
rose in the color of dried grass.
In the middle of the sea
a black rock has a round hollow,

and at its center
two people crouch facing one another.
Their heads buried in each other's shoulders,
they huddle small, like a single mass.
The water is cold
and the wind is strong.
All they have
is each other's warmth.
A small island,
two small people.
Yet in this narrow place
the weight of the whole world can be felt.
The wind is strong
and the sea is wide.
People are small.
So they gather closer.
Endurance
is not overcoming the vast world.
It is leaning on each other
enough to keep from falling.
They said the sea was the tears of the haenyeo, the women divers.
Those tears do not become a sea
because there is still
a shoulder beside them to lean on.