Footnote to Japan: March 11, 2011 (II)

By RICHARD R. GAPPI

Is this
the crossroad
of biting cold
…and teetering
nuclear explosion?

A street leading,
perhaps,
to the end
that shivers
and cuts
across the
horizon:
unsteady
worn-out
and about to throw
its weight
to the other side
as swift as the fox?
Is this the
fleeting breath that
unseals the darkness,
the fear of unknown?
Bring out the flesh.
Figure out the profound abyss.

Decipher
the language of her eyes
whose grammar speaks
of tangent solitude.

(Caption: A Japanese traveler wipes away tears as she talks over the telephone at Incheon international airport in South Korea on March 11. Flights were disrupted after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit Japan’s Pacific coast. Photo by Yonhap via AFP – Getty Images)