Published in Ricepaper Issue 17.3/17.4
kiyooka airs
by Terry Watada
fall-
ing tumb-
ling
stumbling thru
kyoto
airs from
the balconies of kiyomizu-
dera
what is your wish?
longer life to see …
to see my grand-
son
become a
toronto doctor
to dance &
stumble at
his
wedding
to hear his arguments
bubble up
and burst their logic
all over
me
to be treated
in my grand-daughter’s
clinic to kiss
her cheek
turned red and then
pink
at her suburban wedding
to hear her
brag
of her successes
while feeling
my failures.
but i will not survive
the fall
of wishes
and regrets
kyoto airs spangled
with light
and stars
too jagged, too foreign, too
thin
to hold me up
yet
the BC resin trees
breathe
deep
as i descend into
their depths
perhaps to come out
into
the light.
again
Legend dictates that if a person jumps from the balconies of the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto and survives, his or her wish will come true.
for hideki’s and roy’s Kyoto wishes