Hongdae Basement

Exit 9 from Hongdae Station the staircase down to the venue someone has taped your photo to the door a printed screenshot, slightly blurred the face I knew at one remove now taped below the fire exit sign next to the drink specials Incense in a beer can near the stage memorial candles on the merch table someone has made a playlist someone has made a playlist of your songs and it is playing through the PA and everyone in the basement is moving because standing still in a room where someone isn't is the specific torture of the living and the body solves it the only way it knows We came here because you would have come here we came here because you knew this room we came here because the body cannot stand at a railing forever the body eventually has to dance or become stone and we are not stone we are not— We came here because you knew this room we came here because the room still holds you the bass in the chest like a second heart the strobe like the gap between remembering we are here we are moving because the room requires it and because you would have and because the body doesn't know another way to say: I was here you were here we were here at the same time once and now we're here again and we're moving we're moving we're— Someone from your university is here I know them from a photo in your phone that I looked at twice and shouldn't have they are dancing with their eyes closed and their mouth open slightly the way you dance when you're not performing dancing when you've given up on being seen and are just feeling the bass move through the floor up through your feet up through the architecture of the body to wherever grief has pooled The DJ knows what this is the DJ knows the function of the night this is not a party that doesn't know it's a funeral this is a funeral that chose its venue because you knew this basement because you danced here on a night that looked like tonight except you were dancing in it with us not being danced for We came here because you would have come here we came here because you knew this room the sticky floor, the ceiling low the sound too loud for conversation— good, we have nothing left to say that words can carry We came here because you knew this room we came here because the room still holds you the bass in the chest like a second heart the strobe like the gap between remembering we are here we are moving because the room requires it and because you would have and because the body doesn't know another way to say: I was here you were here we were here at the same time once and now we're here again and we're moving we're moving we're— You always said the body knows what the mind refuses you always said the dance floor was more honest than anything you could write in a journal we heard you and we are moving we are letting it we are in your basement at 1 AM in January in Seoul and the incense is in a beer can and your photo is taped below the fire exit and we are moving every cell we have in the direction of you in the direction of wherever you went when you went We came here because you knew this room we came here because the room still holds you the bass in the chest like a second heart the strobe like the gap between remembering we are here we are moving because the room requires it and because you would have and because the body doesn't know another way to say: I was here you were here we were here at the same time once and now we're here and we're moving we're moving we're— we're— we're— You always you always you always knew this room The song you loved at number one is playing in a basement in Hongdae and the people who loved you are moving because you required it and the room is yours for as long as we keep moving