At the farmer’s market

the woman seller helped me

identify a new vegetable, by

speaking of familiar tastes —

“This is cabbage-y and lemon-y”—

as if to echo that universal truth:

we exist in relation to others.

To prove her right,

I came home with Kimchi—

a jar of fermented vegetables,

oozing their earthy smells,

in a nameless communion,

devoid of You’s and I’s.

published in RIC Journal, September 2022