70) The History of Shoes
Wolran Kim
A map without road signs hangs over his bending back
When sunset sits on every shelf of the shoe chemicals
When he rams down a big hobnail on a shoe like a horseshoe
His pastspreads on thefoot pad, and his future drives
He steals and sneaks the past of passersby
When he puts bond on with bare hands in a black apron used at a butcher’s
His lost path drags out of it
Stranger’s ways peel off after soaking in warm water for half an hour
People made shoe-boats with sails tracking the Pacific wind in the Greater East Asia War
People made shoes with dead soldiers’ boots from the Korean War
People made shoes with bald tires after
Under his tilted black beret, his left eye that lost sight from a sharp gimlet
Is covered by a blind past
Shoes without eyes read maps as braille, and give him new eyes
Both synthetic and natural leather under the same sewing machine
Are the same cloudy or bright day that he should fix
When he sees a customer who wants to reform orange enamel shoes to black
In those days, even a shoe maker buys factory shoes
After bankrupt from a sushi bar and bakery, I finally returned to this shoe store
The ways he ruined and wishes to erase want to be reformed
Time is carved on the magic board, like young rock
The heel of time always frays from the outside
And it was enough to bend the spine of awhole life
Whenever he moves his weight with a hidden splay-footed walk
He sprains his ankle of life
The origin of the alley from the front to the back, he dreams
Every step of youth that is thrown away to the corner of an unroofed yard
Cranes his head on the dead end of twilight years on the causeway
In a 35 sq. ft. store that hasn’t any neon sign
Strangers’ unpaved roads are improving from the elaborate hands
Accumulating white dusts of time are lucid on the shined shoes