A crimson brilliance spread across the horizon,
and the edge of the eastern sky bled softly—
a wash of pale blue and tender white.

The scent of flowers, caught in the teeth of darkness,
drifted sideways—
a quiet spilling of fragrance into the wind.

One rose, one fell—
your death and my betrayal
lingered above the trembling earth,
curled like smoke in the fading air.

With the sound of bones being licked clean,
it burrowed deep—
rooting itself inside the hollow of my soul,
splintering what was whole.

Our eyes, locked within the void,
spoke no words—
yet the silence was filled with battle.

I had fallen,
like a beast wallowing in the trough, gasping for breath—
but when I saw a single flowering tree,
my body had already lifted itself
from the mire of despair.

The blossoming tree—
death itself standing before me.

I no longer wish to roam in search of freedom.
Even if I could,
I would only long
to see a human face again.

At last,
the great moon rises in silence—
perhaps now,
it is its turn to grieve.

© TaeHun Yoon

– Note:

This poem was written with the image of Jesus in Gethsemane at heart.
Amid the crimson glow of evening,
I saw death and betrayal intertwined with love and forgiveness.

The agony of Jesus is not merely one man’s tragedy—
it is the struggle that unfolds within every human soul.
Within us dwell both the betrayer and the one who forgives,
staring at each other in silence, locked in an unseen battle.

Yet even in the mud of despair,
a single flowering tree rises—
a sign of resurrection,
a promise that life will not be extinguished.

Through this poem,
I wished to walk, however faintly,
through the loneliness of that night with Jesus—
and in that deep silence,
to feel a ray of light descending from heaven.