Eight A-Bomb Haiku
The desert glowed
brighter than a thousand suns —
everything changed
Japan was clearly
defeated … still the A-bombs
found their targets
The A-bombs killed
and maimed massively —
mostly civilians
Hiroshima —
city of a thousand cranes
calls out for peace
Nagasaki —
may you be the last victim
of an A-bomb attack
For every hibakusha
many must obey, many
must remain silent
Those first A-bombs —
small by today’s measure
of insanity
The mournful sounds
of the shakuhachi
take one’s breath away
– July 2020