E. E. Cummings Prize Honorable Mention, selected by M.P. Carver
Judith Hoyer is a Wayland, Massachusetts resident whose full-length poetry collection, Imagine That, was published by FutureCycle Press in February 2023. Her poems have appeared in journals that include The Atlanta Review, CALYX Magazine, Cider Press Review, Southwest Review, Tar River Review, The Lake (UK), The Moth Magazine (IRE), and The Worcester Review.
Alone on the Road Back to Seoul
after Monica Youn
In Pyongtaek I was rushed
onto the wrong bus with locals
gripping loaded grocery bags.
After forever on a back road
I was swept into a depot, and like the blackbird
in the rafters I was desperate for a way out.
As night fell down tear by tear
I plunged into a crowded square where white cabs
lined up like bones of the departed.
Seoul? I said and was led
to an anonymous black sedan. The driver read
the card I handed over, Ah, The Ambassador!
As the car moved north where this trip began
I groped for my billfold, counted 1,000 won,
like ransom for my release.
Flickering Seoul crawled toward us in the dark
where my hotel waited on top of a hill.
I gave the man whatever he wanted and more.