(2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami)

then a window opens

brilliant specs of light

come bursting through the rubble,

exposing the devastation,

Tsunami tidal wave,

innocent humpback whales

bluefish and

human babies confused,

abandoned on shore,

puppies and two-wk old petrified sparrows

innocently

brutally

washed overboard

then a window opens

bashed and pelted random fingers

grasping shafts of moonbeams emerge,

hundreds extended in dignity, pointing

-to where nurses bake fresh brown bread

-to where Fukushima farmers offer sweet drinking water

-to where Tokyo razorblade punk-gangsters nurture babies

-to where Hiroshima mothers bravely struggle upstream

-to where orphaned little league kids grasp a floating door

-to where Banyan trees untangle from twisted roots

-to where island ochre sands recede then rebuild

-to where gardens and ashrams waterproof and seal once more

-to where volunteers from Sweden and Canada

climb aboard wooden ships,

setting sail for Japan

and then the window opens

as the world once again swells, slowly

breaths out,

glowing with solidarity,

only now a finer paradigm

of colossal unity

December, 2011

Delray Beach, FL

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