I tried to digest my feelings on the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, and found that the only way I could express myself without ranting was a haiku cycle. So here it is:
I tried to digest my feelings on the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, and found that the only way I could express myself without ranting was a haiku cycle. So here it is:
Earth shakes, waves tower.
Godzilla, made real by greed,
rises from the shore.
Tsunamis erase
the seaside towns while death brews
in reactor cores
Trains down, roads gone.
The country’s infrastructure
becomes its shackles
In the bitter cold
wait the dispossessed—and the
undiscovered dead.
The army moves out.
Rescue begins, but where are
food, water, power?
Confused reports, fear.
Fire at a nuclear plant.
Bland assurances.
Aged reactors.
Past their lifespan, design flaws.
Bland assurances.
Radiation, blasts.
Dead men, evacuation.
Bland assurances.
Containment breaches.
Hot fuel melts, death rides the air…
Is someone in charge?
Japanese do not
question authority, but…
They’re beginning to.
Toyko stands tall.
But fears what the wind might bring.
The crowds are thinning.
Ahead of the wind,
Corporate jets flee Japan
And the blame they’ve earned.
Refugees huddle.
Snow blankets their poor shelters.
Forgotten, for now.
As Japan, so us.
We’re no better; perhaps worse.
Is this our future?
