When the earth is no longer a womb,
just a shriek and whistle of once uttered prayer—
a long,
puncturing howl of everything
that was once you
turned into casualties of silence,
then you know
that death has arrived,
noiselessly,
silent as a missile.
All the clamor outside-
it’s the hibakujumoku,
(the survivor trees)
insisting on life
within the blast radius
of your heart.
Note:
In Japanese, the trees that survived the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called "hibakujumoku," which translates to "A-bombed trees" or "survivor trees" in English.
