Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Note Left at a U.S. Camptown Brothel for My Missing Imo
Note Left at a U.S. Camptown Brothel for My Missing Imo
Dear Sixth Imo, Grandfather's youngest daughter,
No one taught you to write "petal" / unfurling red across the bed /
creek cutting the mattress / No one told me your name / chalk to
sketch your body starred and open / so Grandmother could buy rice
while the neighbors ate barley / Nobody asked where her money came
from / They knew where youngest daughters disappeared to / why
their mixed babies disappeared too / what math purchased seaweed
for soup fed to the married eldest delivering a son / The first time I
heard the rumor of you it was a mistake / to ask your name because
Omma wanted to hide you / Just as she hid the fact of me I also hid
the words I knew—kijichon, yanggongju, koa, ibyeongah / I hid under
the bed, in the cupboard, behind clay pots / all the names for absence
feeding our family who chewed and chewed