Empty Bowl on the Shelf

Empty Bowl on the Shelf
Yong Wan Choi 08.27.10

I stock the refrigerator full with food and worry
sturdy dishes stacked layer on layer along the kitchen wall
old shoes huddled side by side in the shoe cabinet
old clothes folded neatly in the wardrobe

Jostling on the shelf, enduring, holding out,
the harder I try to cut it down, the more
the weight leaning on the wall only swells

A life so dearly weighed
so earnestly enjoyed, deep in the heart—
the piled-up worries, the bound-up stories
I could not clear away without regret

In one moment grown heavy to the very bottom
it all empties out at once, like this

In the middle of the shelf, grown light as the wind,
one empty bowl that has laid down its yoke
new life pools in its reborn bottom