from Shuntaro Tanikawa’s

Floating Down the River in Melancholy

Macalester College

Intl 65 Rachel May

1. A little girl muttering to herself

squatting, staring at the ground.

Words materialize

in a place neither Oregon nor Yokohama

but the sky overhead is identical everywhere.  

2. From 2001 till 2002

a super-sonic jet draws a white cloud

across the desert.

Afternoon 4 p.m.

December 31. 

3. In cities with bells

and cities without bells

there are homeless people

and no time to count

the coins scattered like firecrackers.

4. Look, a proud, park pigeon

Look at him…

Look, a strutting pigeon:

a solitary bearded man

a single arrogant pigeon

5. The same hand that pressed the button

dropping the napalm

gingerly turned the faucet, and water trickles out.

Is Caesar Borgia’s water

different from any other?

6. The horses drew the firetruck

down to the bank;

Two men stole

one tank of water

glanced at the river and said, "Thanks."

7. Only once did the oil rig

spurt rich, #1 oil

collected carefully in a bag

and hauled down by 2 horsepower;

the bag, turned inside out, produced the sumo Konishiki.

8. Inside the dark, suffocating bagpipe bag,

a lost, 18^th C. flea

researched and discovered

his Insectness

in the strange Sturm und Drang.

9. Drenched in nectar,

a boy, riding with his family

in a bathtub,

slid down to the center