Two Poems:
I Wonder
Sometimes I wonder
why it is not so.
For ages and ages, for billions of years
we have been living in the sunlight
that is so clear
We have been breathing air
that is so clear
We have been drinking water
that is so clear
Why then
haven’t we and
what we do come
to some clarity?
Fingers
Every time I look at my hands
with my fingers open on my lap
I am moved
with my fingers open on my lap
I am moved
Tiny fingers are
pulsating
as if they were petals
of the flowers
that bloomed in me
They look proud
They look happy
snuggling with each other
As if they had never been forced to do
anything mean
anything despicable
by me
by Michio Mado
translation: Takako Lento
from Masters of Modern Japanese Poetry
The Morris-Lee Publishing Group,
Rosemont, New Jersey, 1999