Tada Ima.

I am now home after another epic five weeks in Japan. Among MANY things, my visit included another pilgrimage to Hiroshima. Last year, I went to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and while in Nagasaki wrote this poem in response to my feelings. I had intended to the leave the poem folded in a paper crane at the epicenter in Horishima last year but I didn't have enough time. I intended to leave it this year come hell or high water but I forgot the crane at Taylor's apartement in Kokura and had no written record of it with me. So I'll post it here in hopes that the ether will receive it instead.

PEACES OF NAGASAKI

We are bombing the whole

world to pieces. We have

forgotten the hours of August

so warm, so scorching hot,

that shadows burned so fiercely

that they clung to the walls

even as the sun fell down.
Memories have slipped away

with the cobwebs of time

and the blasted scars have faded

into steel graves. New generations

push forth, squeaky clean.

Remind them of war.

Remind them of fog, gloom and hate.

Remind them of sunless days

shadowed with mushroom

clouds, of the fragile crust

of life and the tune of animosity.

For who can appreciate the beauty

of peace without knowing

the ugliness of war.