My name—
always on someone’s lips,
always in the air between us.

It seems I only call it
when I am far away.

Now, sitting here,
looking at you,
I feel it—
the name I once carried long ago,
the name waiting for me tomorrow.

When I was you,
I did not know my own name.

And in that name,
the one who spoke it
has faded from memory.

You and I—
we have both let it go.

Yet still,
that name circles near,
calling me,
and I, once more,
calling back.

• Note: While serving on the front lines in the Korean Army (1973-1975), I carried the weight of duty and discipline. That same year, 1975, after receiving my honorable discharge, I embraced a new chapter of life—I married WanHee before the year’s end.

© TaeHun Yoon, 1975