Taemong by Kimberly McAfee

Taemong Kimberly McAfee After Li-Young Lee*My mother had a dream of me,when she and I were one.She dreamed of a snakecoiled on her belly.It was her taemong, her conception dream, of me.How Adam and Eve were so deceived!A wily snake, the fruit of the tree of knowledge.Introducing suffering on this earth.A snake condemned to writhe about the world on its belly.I was strange when I was young;a half-Korean girl in a place with no other Asians or mixed people.How the other children were so deceived!I was no gorgon!I was a human child — just like them.I once had a dream,where I warred against an amphisbaena.One of its heads was bigger than the other,and I managed to avoid the larger head’s bites, and crushed it with a rake into the earth.The victory was short-lived,as the smaller head bit me with vengeance.I then killed the monster,but was horribly injured in the process.The great Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt,left this world with the bite of an asp.After I awoke from that strange dream,successes and failures came,the pains brought by the striking bites of life.I became a new creature,my skin shed to reveal my nature within:I am a Poet.I writhe about on my belly,hunting for experiences,hunting for words, to birth creations.Satiating the hunger within.My dream.Could this be what the taemong foretold?*Inspired in part by Li-Young Lee’s poem titled, Water. It is part of his debut poetry collection, The Rose.More from Kimberly McAfee ↓@writerpoetkim on InstagramThe Savior/Shadow Principle: A Self-Help Technique and Philosophy Using Archetypes is out nowalong with, The Savior and the Shadow Queen: A Fantastical Tale Told Through Sequential Poems, the poetry collection and companion work to The Savior/Shadow PrincipleThis poem is published in her chapbook, AmerAsian: My Journey to Becoming Whole as a Mixed Korean-AmericanMentioned in this episode:Write After with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. If you want to join: Listen to a poem from the month of April on One Poem Only, then write your own in response. I will pick one for each day to read in June for a special series: One Poem After 🍎🍏 Submissions close May 15.Write After Submissions Form