MOTHER COURAGE

With March blowing wild breath onto the sprawling cold city
The armies moved along the coast north
Motorized infantry
Towards the Canadian border;
That day the sakuras bled
Gathering pools of red petals
streaming like rivulets of blood
In the gray cement canyons
Today I am left to pick up the spoils by the road
Round shields
A lonely shoe ( I always wonder where its mate could be)
A torn garment
And a pale piece of paper,
a letter to nowhere
rolling in the dust