Day 11 in Hospital

May 24th


Bleak rain
The gray sky


J came from NYC
With her short
Spiky shiny hair
In a low-cut black T-shirt
Brought an air of NY


I thought she would never
Have her waist long hair cut.
I wonder how many years have past since then.


Hugged in her arms
The distance melted
between NY and here
My path and hers converged.


My drooping feet,
right and left, squeezed and kneaded
I remember the touch of
Hands of Kan-non,
Hands that heal.


Kneaded
Squeezed
With eyes closed
I am in Nirvana, where
A dragonfly flies.


Mari came
With scrambled eggs she made
Three of us together
Just as we were in the lunchroom in NYC.


In youth
The promise of a shining future lied ahead
Death hath not so ghastly a face at a distance,
As it hath at hand.


Hands of Kan-non
Over the hillsides of legs that couldn’t walk
Glided
Lulled me to sleep
Like a baby.


“I am afraid to die.”
The emotion I’d contained so far
Overflowed in the presence of J.


In the place of between, where time does not exist
My beloved cat, Lucky
Is waiting for me.
A green stream, a breeze caresses my cheeks.


My heart is released
Feeling love and reflecting on love
I will be reunited with you.
Flowers bloom with joy
Butterflies dance.


Hands of Quan Yin
Lead me to satori


A butterfly never fails to emerge from a chrysalis
Immobile me and
An immobile chrysalis


From outside
You can’t tell
Inside the chrysalis
Metamorphosis is going on


To take wings
Working hard
Day by day.

Poem by Maria Flanki

Edited and translated by J. Ujiie
©2011