for Miwa Yanaga’s chromogenic prints of young Japanese women imagining their lives in fifty years
My octogenarian
awakens
in a red dress,
azalea or flame.
She says,
if you’re blessed to live
as long as I have,
sail ahead—
no one will care.
Raise a glass house
above a lagoon.
Spear a sea
bass for supper. Heal
your eyes. Compose
a silent koto-poem
for strangers.
In summer rain, you say—
Peace, my love
I mean no harm
in hummingbird
language. Yes,
my loved ones
leave earth,
yet I remain
a strong-backed
woman flying
through clouds,
koi, pondweed
skin of ages.
I say, kishi kaisei.
Wake from death,
return to life.