Unnamed Road

Jungjin Lee

Not only the road wanders without a name.

This shrouded woman climbing the steps beside the road

and the man who, arms akimbo, walks through another frame

where a low wall marks the edge of the road.

And then a child, sitting alone, unprotected.

Perhaps an abandoned truck without a license.

But for most of its length, the road has been stripped

of everything but its own surface, shining a little

in the black and white light of what has happened and happened again,

in these unresolved angers and inexcusable lapses.

Here a doorway, outlined but unopened.

There an infinite expanse of bricks that do not adhere to each other.

The light is constant and unforgiving.

Unwilling to turn away.

as published in december magazine 28:2

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