The rubber soles of my shoes
gripped the cracked pavement.

We slowly descended through the mazed ravine
of houses nestled in Seodaemun.

The sun in the sheltered sky
couldn’t find us as we scurried
from brick to brick, from step to step.

Occasionally, we saw through a frosted window
caricatures marionetted in seemingly staged ways.

A vegetable truck blaring competed for the slick gravel
with hunched elderly women, prodding restlessly, squabbling
endlessly, smiling furtively.

We emptied onto our street within sight of our apartment,
the day empty of distress, the night bringing its own anxiety
coping , endlessly coping,

breathing,
living every inch
of mischief,
bending to the
surrender of sleep.

Tired from the sun that never
could catch us, not for an instant.