The Family

KYOIIRO HAGIWARA

two poems

THE FAMILY

Out of my brother's yellow trousers, my black trousers

Comes headless money

With the smell of the black heart of the night rubbed in.

With this money we eat rice, buy stamps, pay for

laundry.

We don't know what future we have to live for.

Our father became bone and mud when young;

Our mother keeps the kitchen first, and puts

Manuscripts and magazines in order, or

Reads a paper, or drinks tea, or...

Ma!

My right eye was stabbed with a knife, and I am half-

blind;

Brother is nearsighted, his eyes stick out and from the

waist down he is awfully thin.

Money that comes from our pants

Is our own turbid blood we trample on.

Ma does not suspect

We suffer from diarrhoea and dizziness.

When we brothers, already crippled, change into our

summer clothes,

We do not seem to her eyes more than ghosts.

... Ma!

...Give us some food!