Eric Baker
Footprint

Walking behind eomma            Empty Chungcheong road  

Tar                   Humming    Like bees        Not from tire  

From heat      Eomma points to a shuttered store         Toys StationaryHan

gul fading           Remember             Uncle bought you toy here

Now Uncle lives down the block                 House—

makeshift                   Shuttered 

school. He's left the rubber padding up the stairs

Each step        Colored footprints of children 

No more here                        or          not as many         Just

An old Singer in the cornerNeedle rusted              Body Japanned

Gold dragon emblazoned    Finished before the war              Before

the land was half                               When it was still another

's.
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Image by Ahmet Cantürk:from Pexels
Eric Baker is a Korean American writer originally from New York, currently living near Washington D.C., where he teaches writing at the University of Maryland, in College Park. He currently serves as an editor for Painted Bride Quarterly and Hominum, and his work has been featured or is forthcoming from Gulf Coast, Tupelo Quarterly, Painted Bride Quarterly, Hominum, Washington Writers' Publishing House and elsewhere.
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