Story—Worn Body

^{translated from the Korean by Stine An}

     I see a body climbing up the stairs in pained equilibri-
um. It bends forward, unbreaking, gently pushing against
what is behind, leaning up. The vertigo isn’t from the steep
rise of what’s ahead. It’s not from the highest step on the
stairs, away by twenty steps. It’s from the fact that the worn
body will tread on its own weight to reach the top.

      I tried counting how long it would take me to push my
body up to the highest step. Above it, an endless blue sky. A
summer story.