One Step, One Inch

Standing back to back, go around the earth
Once home for grandmothers, a resting place
Facing each other, just one step, one inch

Grenades cut the bridges, left the ashes
Grandfathers used to fish at the lakes there
Standing back to back, go around the earth

Tanks left brothers cold on the battlefields
A picnic in blossoms a while ago
Facing each other, just one step, one inch

Bombs snapped the strings between those families
Once attractive mounts draw the whole nation
Standing back to back, go around the earth

Bullets penetrated childhoods in blood
There marbles, pebbles, all they used to play
Facing each other, just one step, one inch

Died, poor, thousands of brothers and sisters
There was once one united North and South
Standing back to back, go around the earth
Facing each other, just one step, one inch

-- Jae Seung Lee '13

Submitted by the author.  "My country, Korea, has been separated into two countries for about six decades. Only because of differences of ideology have many families had to be divided into two extreme sides. For Americans, especially, in the United States, the issue of Korea can be easily discussed just as a conflict between two countries. Thus, I wanted to show people that this problem is about not only military issues but also about the pain and sorrow of people who have lost or are separated from their families that were once in the same united Korea."