2022 Sejong International Sijo Competition
Winners | Judges | Winning Entries
Winning Entries
Grandmother's Hair
Your grandmother’s hair held secrets
plaited into her crown,
Passed on to you as she braided
stories upon your scalp,
Echoes of ages in her fingertips,
weaving laughter from faraway lands.
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“I see one—low to the grass!” ”I see one, too—up in the tree!”
Each firefly—a miracle, children’s faces glow with pure joy…
In the dark, I stand surrounded with memories of past summers.
Father’s Chair
Rain patters down the patio. Drip- dripping on Father’s chair.
Puddle collects round plastic legs, a little lake to soak his feet.
Still I watch as days turn to months, for Father to come and sit back down.
A socially distanced date
what are your hobbies she asks, sitting across from her blind date
i cannot, hear you i fear, the gentleman replies to her
i’m not deaf, but there are six feet, of a distance, between us
Baby Changing Station
We entered the women’s restroom, greeted with clucking fury,
you can’t be a man in here, holding a sick baby girl.
We washed her, through gender & health, loved and cherished, as a team.
Somebody
No flitting birds fill the tree, too many days of dry heat.
Only a bug, upside down, climbs tall grass in front of me.
Stem’s arced wide, bent by his slight life—six-legged gospeler of green.