Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Rin Ishigaki

Words

A line of a poem floats into my mind
Vividly
Then suddenly deserts me.
Like the fish that got away
Sometimes it never comes back
There are times days and months later
When it appears right before my eyes.
In June last year
I met by chance in an underwater viewing platform in Okinawa
A fish as big as a parrot-fish.
Staring at me full in face from behind the glass
It departed, completely unruffled.
Appeared again and departed once more.
What was it?
The eye that stared at me?
As far as that fish is concerned
Who can say that I am not words?

WORDS

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Words

A line of a poem floats into my mind
Vividly
Then suddenly deserts me.
Like the fish that got away
Sometimes it never comes back
There are times days and months later
When it appears right before my eyes.
In June last year
I met by chance in an underwater viewing platform in Okinawa
A fish as big as a parrot-fish.
Staring at me full in face from behind the glass
It departed, completely unruffled.
Appeared again and departed once more.
What was it?
The eye that stared at me?
As far as that fish is concerned
Who can say that I am not words?

Words

A line of a poem floats into my mind
Vividly
Then suddenly deserts me.
Like the fish that got away
Sometimes it never comes back
There are times days and months later
When it appears right before my eyes.
In June last year
I met by chance in an underwater viewing platform in Okinawa
A fish as big as a parrot-fish.
Staring at me full in face from behind the glass
It departed, completely unruffled.
Appeared again and departed once more.
What was it?
The eye that stared at me?
As far as that fish is concerned
Who can say that I am not words?
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