Five-Poems-by-June-Kino-Cullen-3

In Medias Res by FR Dane 2011
In Medias Res by FR Dane 2011

June Kino Cullen

World War II
        For my grandmother, Akiko
        Utsunomiya, Japan

Past midnight she hears boots crunch
against gravel, then a soft knock.
She rises out of bed, opens the door.
Hiroshi, is that you? Summer breeze

strokes her face. Alone in the garden,
she rests on a rock, hears the swing creak.
Morning brings a telegram from Burma:
Your son, Hiroshi Mahiko, killed in action.

 

—♦—

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