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Tohoku
(for TR)
there’s a woman on this bus
who looks just like you did
when we met twenty years ago
it’s hard to look at her
without losing my grip on this world
arriving back in Tohoku
where we ate soba noodles
until one of our friends threw up
trying to prove his strength
you were so beautiful
not like a painting
on the wall of a museum
forcing the viewer
to stand behind the rope
or risk damaging its brittle surface
no, you were like a field
of pale cherry blossoms
under the sun of northern Japan
inviting us all closer with a warm smile
as we orbited like honey bees
entranced and attentive
two decades later
the young woman on this bus
could almost be your daughter
for the last few hours
every time she’s smiled
I’ve been back there again
remembering that first taste of freedom
those cold winter days
in the mountains of Tohoku
What a touching gift….thank you seems inadequate, but I do; kokoro kara hontoni arigatou gozaimasu. Itsumademo keshitte wasuremasen.