Search & Recovery i

By Shin Yu Pa

For James Kim (1971 — 2006)

it could have
happened to any
of us

a wrong turn
down a logging road
tires tunneled
into snow

a man’s undying
love for his children

moves satellites
maps aerial images

eighteen care packages
dropped over 16
miles of the Siskiyou,

bearing handwritten
notes from a father
to his son

the signs
you left for those
who came after you

a red t-shirt
a wool sock,
a child’s blue skirt

layers of a life,
stripped down to
a family’s fate —

the weight of being
unseen — to travel
a path back to

what you knew
at birth, the warmth
of being held close

brought home

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