We'll shut the doors

Picked up this 1981 volume of Japanese Poetry, at a wonderful bookshop, on Botanic Avenue at the weekend ...

... I think it may be somewhat invaluable to me over coming days - here's a Taeko Tomioka poem from within:


Just the Two of Us

You'll make tea,
I'll make toast.
While we're doing that,
at times, early in the evening,
someone may notice the moonrise dyed scarlet
and at times visit us
but that'll be the last time the person comes here.
We'll shut the doors, lock them,
make tea, make toast,
talk as usual about how
sooner or later
there will be a time
you bury me,
and I bury you, in the garden,
and go out as usual to look for food.
There will be a time
either you or I
bury either me or you in the garden
and the one left, sipping tea,
then for the first time, will refuse fiction.
Even your freedom
was like a fool's story.

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Taeko Tomioka (1935 - )

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