<\/p>\n
from <\/em>Voices after a Tsunami<\/strong> Coastal<\/strong><\/p>\n A handshake\u2019s worth of stress <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI will never forget this for the rest of my life, and I think it is important that I do not forget this.\u201d (anonymous medical team member)<\/p>\n Where a body is found, the rescue workers Uncooked rice and melted snow A week on, the radio announces death tolls. A boy reading a book tells me \u201cAre you in love?\u201d a girl asks. \u201cMy house is gone now. We made a footbath, heated with fires In contrast to the mountains of rubble <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nThe Tohoku Pacific Earthquake (scale 9) and Tsunami hit Japan on 11 March 2011.<\/p>\n
\ncaused an earthquake, and triggered a tsunami;
\nas if a giant bucket of waste water,
\nleft after washing traffic film from a car,
\nhad been knocked over,
\nsweeping model towns through the garden
\nuntil momentum stalls, it seeps into the ground
\nand people sink into stasis.<\/p>\n
\ntie a red flag and offer a prayer.
\nThere are too many flags to count.<\/p>\n
\ncause gastro-enteritis. When I draw blood,
\nit\u2019s black and thick. Supplies are \u201con the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA newborn cries. A siren signals
\na moment\u2019s silence at the time the earthquake struck.<\/p>\n
\nthere\u2019s a cloth of time he dreams he could wrap
\naround the city and take it back to before.<\/p>\n
\nI tell her he has a beard. \u201cLike Santa Claus?
\nI wonder if he will come next winter.<\/p>\n
\nHe will still stop, won\u2019t he?
\nI want my house and my mummy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nand invited evacuees. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much family,\u201d
\nan old man wipes his face.<\/p>\n
\nand muddy ground, the stars are always beautiful
\nagainst the black sky every night.<\/p>\n