Kamikaze
POETRY FORMAT, 16 Feb 2015
Sumeet Grover – TRANSCEND Media Service
Edmund spends his lonely hours
each evening: the news channel
plays relentlessly in the kitchen,
in a steel framed TV, next to a
pot of white lilies;
they bring foreign stories every hour
appealing enough to fly him back
to the rubbles of Basra as he
detests cooking yet another year,
yet another day, in his vacant life
to feed his resolute stomach, even on
diseased afternoons when antibiotic gas
burps out of his throat, defeats
his mind to sleep.
Some times he sits on bamboo floor,
on a cream cushion and stares
at the brick-floored gullies of his life:
rusty, pariah and deaf; and before
sinking into an engulfing emptiness,
he begins to hope that one day,
kamikaze, the divine wind sent by
Sun Goddess will blow his way,
and fill his futile life with visitors.
But it needs no introspection that
kamikaze never came for the Japanese
young men in their teens and twenties
who left their families and rallied
for war, only to return
to a suspended hollowness, and
uranium burnt bodies.
Kamikaze never comes,
except for some soldiers in USA military:
they win every war, even when
they explode babies and grandmothers,
whilst their tanks play songs, inspire them,
“kill the motherf**, kill…!”
______________________________
Sumeet Grover:
– Member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and of the TRANSCEND Art & Peace Network
– Coordinator of Global Poetry
– Independent Writer for Poetry, Arts and Peacebuilding. www.sumeetgrover.com
– A software engineer originally from India, based in the UK.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Feb 2015.
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“Kamikaze” means divine wind. In the situation of the above poem, there was no Kamikaze; no divine wind blew. It was a desperate situation. The Divine Wind, in most wars that the United States has involved with, has been available for the United States, perhaps with some exceptions including the Vietnam War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War or the like. “In God We Trust.”
By the way, because the title of the poem is “Kamikaze”, let me briefly mention the Kamikaze attack during the WWII/Asia-Pacific War, I never justified Kamikaze attack. It is reported that, when a Kamikaze attack was proposed, many high ranking Japanese military officials were against it, saying that this attack would constitute suicide attacks, wasting young people’s lives. Nonetheless, alas, this horribly tragic attack was implemented. Sad and more than sad…
One more: By using this opportunity, I would recommend the TMS readers read this book, Listen to the Voices from the Sea (or the English translation of Kiké Wadatsumi no Koe). This book is a collection of letters and wills of those young Kamikaze pilots. Most of them were drafted and were ordered to die. What did these young men think of their lives, of their loved ones, and of peace, just before they died?
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/writings/books/wadatsumi/index.htmhttp://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/writings/books/wadatsumi/index.htm and/or http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Voices-Sea-Midori-Yamanouchi/dp/0940866854/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424103469&sr=1-3&keywords=the+voice+from+the+sea
After reading the book mentioned above, reread the above poem, “Kamikaze”.
The above poem expresses the sadness in the desperate situation. “Kamikaze” may be a symbol of the desperate sadness. “In God We Trust”?