A Girl on a Swing

She sees the mountain
upside down.

With her long hair
sweeping the fallen leaves
she swings
like a pendulum.

From the lagoon at sunset
a hundred sparrows fly away.

Wishing them back
she whistles softly.
And downward
she falls into the sky.




"A Girl on the Swing" by Chungmi Kim. Copyright © 1995. Originally published in Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, Suzanne Loomis and Charles H. Webb, eds. (Red Wind Books, 1995). Reprinted with the permission of the author.