Inkyoo Lee

Terminus

The back of my hands,
moon-white in the train window:

how much it takes to negate
midnight.

A stranger leaving the platform
meets my glance for a second

wondering where I’m headed, unsure
which of us is more alone.

Empty stations fill up
with the sound of departure,

a thousand iron bells
tolling in the dark.

I close my eyes, trusting only
the shadow of my own flesh

because no headlight
could whisk away the feeling

that I came into this world
the way a commuter falls asleep

and finds himself
at the terminus.

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Inkyoo Lee was born in South Korea and studies philosophy in the UK. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Rust & Moth, The Literary Canteen, The Hanok Review and Phi Magazine.