ISSUE: Summer 2022
[Translation of Japanese regulation banning screaming on amusement-park rides]
Please scream
inside your heart: hold
your terror, your errors, your
regrets apart
from those around you. Keep
a clinical distance, sterile
as a needle. Don’t let
an emergency state
grow with contagion; please
no pressure on the plexiglass
between us. An outbreak
of heartache already plagues
our shallow plots: newly dug,
grassless as a winter that follows
the spring. We must maintain
decorum, we must
contain our energies.
We must retire
our cries into mere
susurration.
Circumstances grow
dire. Circumstances
require us to acquire
new skills: wail more
softly. Silently, preferably.
Internally, necessarily.
At least quietly, quietly. Quietly
tend your muzzled scream
inside your heart, cradled
like a delicate gem
that increases
in solidity and shine
as it survives
the press of time.
