I unraveled her kimono
As if it were a gift,
When hours earlier,
She’d bandaged my arm.
I traced her clavicle
With the only finger left,
And seconds later, would
Intimately grasp the music.
So I whimper within want,
And blame it on the pain,
Come an instant,
She’d pegged me a “liar.”
Then we’d love, we’d wed,
A naked knowing only moonlight,
And should the hours understand
“Later,” we’d know only dark.
So the sunrise ensued,
I folded her kimono, silk and
As if it were a letter, one
Parting gratitude and prior wander.
But the crimson and
‘Ever’d arrive later, and later’d
Arrived atop a melancholy’s mount,
Eternal and seasoned “regret,”
She’d passed, we’d passed,
And the night’s passed to know
Only “broken,” broken, the bow,
And how all and always unravels.
I spent some time in Kyoto. I will never forget Kyoto. But oh, did I try come two days in Tokyo and the skies above and east Narita.
