Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Early Memory

1941

Standing in his crib, crying
Because he hears the sirens crying.
Grandma croons it’s ok, it’s ok
But her body
When she picks him up
Sings a different song
The sirens’ song
And he wails louder
Like the sirens....

And grandma holds
A green-faced monster
With big eyes and a long nose
And oh no she’s trying
To put it on his head
But he fights too hard
And she gives up....

And he’s sitting on grandma’s lap
With some strangers
In a deep trench in the earth
With steep, straight sides.
Someone gives him
A gold ring to play with
To keep him quiet....

And he pushes the ring
Into the dark, damp earth
In and out, in and out
Until he hears no sounds
Even the muted chorus
Of fear around him
But somehow he knows
They are all waiting
For the silence to come back.


1952

The young boy grasps the fenceposts
Staring into the busy streets
Of the city of Nagoya,
Friends, no longer enemies
Going about their days
While he tries hopelessly
To control the rising fear
That he can’t understand.
It is noon
The city marks the time
With a signal, loud, terrifying:

An air raid siren

I remember when I was four and that earthquake in 65 hit, and I instantly thought it was my fault because I was
riding the rocking horse too hard...

And in general I've never quite understood rising fear that seems to come out of nowhere thru-out "history" and defies understanding.

The poem speaks for all the young ones who are caught up in the warfare of our time , so many will never be free of the fear you speak of , much food for thought here

surreal memories make for touching poetry....