Two birthdays, two paychecks

On your birthday in 2003,
we went to that Japanese restaurant
in the Seoul Hilton
and spent 240 000 won
on an a la carte dinner (another 300 000 on a camera?),

the only condition
being to get something off the menu
we had never gotten before.

I miss the Hilton,
not just for that night,
that one memory, but
it does go a long way.

Life has been like that since,
a series of things we have never
tried before.

I hope to go back, though.

To the Hilton, the Westin Chosun,
all the old haunts of the time in Seoul,
the finger food, the cho bap, the budaejigae,
the kimchi from the solleungtang place in
Shinchon after a long night.

I imagine when we go,
I will keep uttering
what’s next?
like some
maniacal infant.

Trying desperately to spend
another 240 000 won
for a point of comparison,
something to equate
perfection with.