after boning up for twenty minutes

on a poet who died young

Chinese compound meaning

“wasted effort”—

made up of characters for “pupil”

and “hard labor”

Night of August 31,

tail end of summer vacation—

writing my mother a long long letter

New eraser for eighty yen,

new band on my wristwatch—

second term begins

In the corridor, our greetings

a bit self-conscious—

first day of the new term

“Oh yeah?!” the new catch phrase—

in the classroom, student conversations

get by on just “Oh yeah?” “Oh yeah!”

At the window, proctoring an exam—

all is cheerless save

a supermarket sign

Smelling faintly of shampoo,

the kids solve problems

in differential and integral calculus

Proctoring the exam,

suddenly I think of each one’s mother

the day she conceived this child

Parents claim to raise their children,

but garden tomatoes turn red

unbidden

As I proctor the math exam,

one girl keeps watching

my every move

Pretending to Wait for Someone

Wanting to be Tinkerbell

and take you in my arms—

pearly pink flat shoes

After seeing you off this morning,

I glance at my toothpaste tube—

the dent in it is new

Sharing in the sun with you

summer’s first tomato,

skin firm yet delicate

He loved another first—

and so I am cast as

the “other-woman type”

“Marry a nice guy, now”

says this guy, with a kiss,

and doesn’t marry me

Each having someone waiting,

you and I talk lightly of baseball,

and part in the afternoon

“Here” you say and hand me the ring

“Thanks” I say and take it

like a piece of candy

Evening—

this man who’s leaving me

earnestly takes my picture

As I weep, another me

marvels at my weeping—

quietly, love draws to an end

Farewell scene:

do cooling passions

flare up a little at the end?

You and I under the full moon

groping for answers—

like a game of blindman’s bluff

Dawn breaks in Tokyo;

at a vending machine in a corner of town,

buying two cans of Coke

As I gaze skyward it floats in my mind—

the name of the girl

who’s probably seeing you off

On a hill west of the capital,

where I came once before,

I wave to the Sunshine Building

Holding a daisy high in the air,

both hands around its neck,

I ask “Who do you love best?”

The ancient maiden Sano no Chigami:

to her was granted

the pain of waiting

Slow-motion walk, alone,

through this land that boasts

the gentle word natanezuyu.

rain at rape-blossom time

I boil three chestnuts

to make an autumn for one—

remembering the far-off sea, and you

Voice lowered to a whisper

the pavement fortune-teller confides,

“I see signs of marriage ahead”

Autumn night, wanting a small romance—

parsley on the veranda

turning slightly yellow

On the table

I keep a small coconut palm

for my solitary mornings

Won’t ease my sighing, I know,

but I try slicing

the ham a bit thicker

Early morning,

cyclamen flowers standing erect—