AN EARRING LEFT IN MY HAND

All the time I heard
their whispering voice.
But I didn’t mix it
with my sighs.

Because they touched my ears,
I wore them carefully.
Once they changed colour
for excitement.

One of them disappeared in the sea,
but the other I hold in my hand
as memory of a pearl earring
I must have lost some night.
TAEKO UEMURA, Japan

Translation Mariko Sumikura – Germain Droogenbroodt –

Stanley Barkan
***

From “Duet of Mirrors”
JUNPA, Kyoto