“A green cabinet” by Ellice Jeon

A green cabinet

I opened the drawer in the cabinet

Wind rose

Sometimes blood circulates to the right

I turned my head

Who’s there, I would have asked if I was at the house we used to live in

I would answer shortly, Yes

Sand splashed out of the drawer

Don’t cross over, I will come to you

I smelled of burning cypress

I said CYPRESS CYPRESS CYPRESS

We were in a moving Ford hatchback and couldn’t have been more comfortable

Soft Kashmir wool wrapped around my shoulders,

I fell into a deep sleep by a river in India

Saw a horse under the shade of a willow tree

Sky blue saddle

I stroked her long and smooth mane

Wanted to ride, but I am a person who rides

No longer in the car

I could feel my face turning reddish, curious about the person carrying me

Curious about myself

Whether it was me that I knew, or me that I had known, or me who has died a million times

Don’t cross over me, I will go to you

I crossed a sandstorm

Like a bride, face veiled

Someone’s thin clothes held on tight

A series of obscure objects on the back of someone who takes me somewhere

A glass of red wine for a toast Carla Bruni’s Spring Waltz

Don’t cross over this time too, I will go to you

Random words dancing, riding with me

A hundred-miles-an-hour, pulse was beating fast

An unstoppable anxiety swooped through thick fog


As a first-generation South Korean, Ellice Jeon immigrated to the US. She studied Fine Arts at UCSB and Fashion at FIDM and went on to become a clothing designer at Wior Corp in downtown Los Angeles. Recently she started to write poems in English hoping her grand kids will read her poems some day when they grow up. She debuted as a poet in a Korean literary publication, Poetry and Spirit-SiwaJungsin, 2011. She published two books, History of Rosa’s (SiwaJungsin, 2015) and I Lie with Melancholy and Moonlight (Hyundae Shihak, 2018) in Korean. She is the recipient of The Overseas Korean Literary Award (2014) and Siwajungsin Award. Her poetry appears in numerous journals such as Altadena Literary Review and “California King Size” published in English (Korean expatriate Literature) and also got translated in Rumanian for Rumania Literary magazine, convorbiri Literare.