25-Feb

CLAYTON ESHLEMAN

SEPPUKU

Coming out of it, a curious

joy; after a year to know suddenly

I am living in Japan! That a film

could so turn me on the living!

Seiichi Matsushima standing on May 6, 1962

before our tomb, Hiroshima, irradiated, cut

and see often coming out of a coffee-house john

a girl's eyes alone in the semi-dark

or along Higashiyama among the late

afternoon housewives red hands reaching for fish

resolve into a man by a window slurping

noodles in sunlight, rests in the beams of eternity

there is no reason to cry Mercy Mercy for this man!

no alternative-

the American biology professor who said

"I am of the ACLU,

there is no violence

in the south"

will not be answered, will be left to his own ritual

in the lard of abundance

the intorsion most clear

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Seppuku is the title of a Japanese film that will soon appear