Fumio Ichizuma

Sad little poems from Japan {{{ No. 3 }}}

Seismic observer
Fumio Ichizuma
was so engrossed
with Mount Usu
that he lived on its lip
and kissed it thrice a day.

Sadly, Ichizuma
himself has erupted.
On ascent of Showa Sin-Zan
we found him
lying on a sheet
of rusty steel
slowly reforming himself
inside out.

A long black feather
flowed from his mouth,
and trickled down the slope.
"The remains of his intestines,"
remarked Obscura-san.
As thin as a mineral slide
he no longer eats,
sustained by his vulcanisation.

Much of his nose
was blasted away with Fukaba.
His mouth was
a tongueless crater.
He belched at us
in a vain attempt to communicate
his faithful years of observation.

"Pyroclastic code,"
Obscura-san informed.
"Which nobody knows but him."

______ {{NB. No.2 was deemed too sad to be printed.}}

Dennis List