[Afternoon Poem] Sunday / Kim Sohyeong

On Sunday, we sit down

and learn about the capitalist era.

In this era, you must not sell your life and soul for money, when reading the sentence

a young friend asks.

Teacher, how do you sell a soul?

He has now lived for ten years, so what kind of answer should he give? A friend who died last year would have gone to church at this time. If there is such a thing as a soul, it must be in a good place. The soul is

blown into a flask and sold?

He seriously blows on it with his hand shape and then giggles.

If it can be sold, a Coca-Cola bottle would be fine too. If I bring this up, my friend will ask if Pepsi is not allowed, and it wouldn't be bad to wonder how much soul is contained in the displayed cans.

But who would buy my soul in this era?

It was our teacher. How pitiful.

Whether they share it little by little, or whether we should simply follow what we learned that such things should not be bought or sold. Passing through this curious time, my childhood is opening an 8.15 Cola.

You must never buy or sell it.

Whose voice was this? A Sunday babbling without knowing when it was sold. In this era, without even having experienced death yet. How well

■ It is often thought that literature and other arts are unrelated to capitalism. This is a clear misunderstanding. Under the capitalist system, art cannot even circulate unless it becomes a commodity. Capitalism commodifies and circulates everything. Memories, love, and souls are no exceptions. In fact, capitalism materializes empty or utterly elusive concepts like the soul into fancy products and displays them before us. Therefore, the immediate slogan for rebellion might be to resolutely refuse to let true art become a commodity. Sorry, but this tautology is not only impossible but is actually a survival strategy that art has begged for under the capitalist system. Then what should be done? I don't know. We can only become more miserable, disappear, or endure. ? Poet Chaesangwoo

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