"Tell me about the proposal." & "Supplication" by Stephen K. Kim

"Tell me about the proposal."

I promise it’s important

every Saturday morning, 

we walked the neighborhood park.

I forgot the names of trees

he pointed out because of nature’s 

eagerness to make me behold him. 

Like in summer, the foliage  

(emerald, celadon, jade) 

rhymed with his eyes. 

The thrumming of cicadas, 

brown noise for his clarion tenor

to pierce. In fall, he stretched

and plucked leaves of grenadine 

or ochre, unveiling his height,

the span of solid shoulders.

Even in winter’s bleakness, 

the whiffs of pine conjured 

his cologne, woody with 

a trace of earthy musk.

One day in April, the mist 

dampening our jackets, 

without warning, he mimed

swimming freestyle, arms 

pinwheeling through the air. 

I stumbled—I missed

the sidewalk, struck by

how he endeavored to

catalyze chaotic delight 

in days I wished to regiment.

I promise it’s all still important,

and I can see why your parents

sent you to your gay uncle

for advice, but I’m sorry

I can’t recall, did you ask

who proposed, or how?

Supplication

The sky’s lurid vermillion

tells of faraway wildfires.

The sun, a looming

disc of magma, 

bears down its hue,

like that of a cloying

blood orange syrup, 

smothering all green 

from the forest’s trees.

Let me believe that if everyday

I sort my plastics, swap meat

for legumes, turn off the tap

while brushing my teeth,

forego drives on Sunday afternoons, 

cultivate my compost bin, insist 

on fair trade coffee in reusable mugs,

I will soon stop inhaling

our planet’s immolation.

Stephen K. Kim (he/him) is a queer Korean American writer and educator in New Jersey. He enjoys spending time with his husband and his cat. His poems appear in Ghost City Review, Neologism, Thimble, and elsewhere. He is a Best of the Net nominee, a student and teacher at the Writers Studio, and a reader for Only Poems. He can be found online @skimperil