I thought there was nothing
I thought only white paper was left
But when I held it to the light
one line rose up
One page
one sentence
Beneath it
nothing
No one erased it
no one took it away
From the start
it was a space left empty
I look for a long time
then read it carefully
"Even in a summer without rain
someone was soaked"
Behind that one line
inside my head
an alley that doesn't exist appears
a window that doesn't exist opens
someone I have never once met
slowly turns around
Leaving only one line
the reason everything else was left empty
so that where nothing is said
my memory would begin
Leaving only one line
they gave me the next season
In that blank space never written
I live a whole life
On the next page
"Before the winter came
that child laughed"
That was all
No name
no face
no place
And yet I know
what kind of laugh it was
I know
even the air of that day
No one ever explained it to me
so why is it this clear
Another page
"A house that waits for one who never returns
does not grow old"
I stop reading
This time
before the scene
my chest hurts
Leaving only one line
the reason everything else was left empty
so that where nothing is said
my memory would begin
Leaving only one line
they gave me the next season
In that blank space never written
I live a whole life
The blank
was not nothing
It was a possibility
that belonged to no one yet
The very last page
hanji older
than the other pages
I thought there was no writing at all
Between the grains of the paper
very faintly
one sentence shows
"You, with the crown taken off
were laughing"
I stop breathing
I read it again
With the crown taken off
you
Leaving only one line
the reason the door was left open before me
so that even the life I never lived
would breathe inside me
Leaving only one line
they gave me to another me
That season not yet written
calls me for the first time
I don't close the page
On the one blank sheet
I only rest my hand
Not yet
I don't write