Hiroshima-Nagasaki: Breaking Dawn

--Breaking dawn,
Yet I saw breaking bones—
perishing lives, squirting blood—
--shattering hopes

There was a black smoke,
as black as Jigoku* itself—
ushering men to Death—to be chained, to be locked,
--shunning light
--throttling lungs
--engulfing souls

So then I knew, it was the end,
When all clouds burst with a dire blood rain,
As the black smoke rose, tainting the sky,
I drank the pain with a bitter smile—

****
--Breaking dawn,
the golden ray of the golden sun strode up--
from horizon, from seas, from mountains yonder,
Okasan*—smiling—
Beckoned me to pick shiitake*—
I smiled back—

Backyard—
--the birds were singing the flowers were dancing,
happiness is in the air—
-- Obasan* was drinking sake*—
-- I was seeking for shiitake—
Before the Death fell!—
--upon the land, upon the harmony, upon the sand,
disconcerting the music disrupting the calm—
Such a horrid discord!—

Despair hung in the air,
I saw—cries
I heard—pain
I felt—chaos
Lost of senses
--topsy-turvy, upside-down, inside-out, haywire—

--Breaking dawn,
Shiitake-filled bucket fell off my hand,
--scattered
I keeled over on the soil and sand,
--battered
mind perplexed--
body ached--
soul ripped—

Amidst the loose Jigoku,
--I heard Okasan screaming,
--I saw Otosan twitching,
--I felt myself dying,

So then I knew, it was the end,
When all clouds burst with a dire blood rain,
As the black smoke rose, tainting the sky,
I drank the pain with a bitter smile—

****
--Breaking dawn,
I beheld—rising, engulfing smoke,
I beheld—the smoke was like a giant shiitake,

And I loosened my clenched fist,
Just to see a puny, bloody shiitake—
--rolled hopelessly into the deathly mist



Originally weaved by Ian Izan

*Jigoku- Japanese for hell
Okasan-Japanese for mother
Otosan- Japanese for father
Shiitake- a type of mushroom found in Japan
Sake- Japanese rice wine