Poems

Motoyasu

By Brandon Shimoda

Then there floated a skull
In the river

Calm
In its intelligence

That is
Seven decades of human ambivalence

. . .

A skull ignites the ears of each intelligence
You were looking for something familiar?
You were looking for some familiar thing?
Let it become a thing
To rest a head upon
The same sky dreamt, as nature is
The same standing under or understanding

. . .

The sun writes the wall
The bearer of joy
On the skin of a silent black wave
That is moving
That is still
I will share it with you
Until it is gone