| Tokyo: la grand illusion |
| Pink nylon blossoms |
| trembling in the icy wind |
| simulate the spring |
| on a Shinjuku plaza |
| a whole plastic garden |
| blooms in anticipation |
| jellied meals devoid of scent or taste |
| tempt the spectator without appetite |
| while on the 52nd floor |
| polychrome fish drift serenely |
| on a video screen behind a veil |
| of real water |
| and the Sage maintains |
| that only the water is false. |
| Tokyo-Kamakura: la petite illusion |
| The distant snowflakes sparkling in the springtime sun |
| resolve with proximity into fat globules of milky water |
| slowed in their falling by the structures of the wall |
| the precious daughter with the blossomed hair |
| painted and padded and cocooned into kimono |
| is captured one final time on film and in her father's dream |
| enacting the fullness of her springtime in the temple garden |
| a bud straining to burst into incandescent flower |
| and jive away in jeans and Nike shoes towards the summer. |
| Kyoto in the season of the cherry trees |
| Sternfaced in the April sun |
| tourists group to attention for photographs |
| before the joyous profusion |
| of plump pink blossom |
| the young priests of Heian Jingu |
| mount guard proudly in resplendent white |
| flagged sleeves flared trousers |
| and broad sashes bulging behind |
| with black walkie-talkies |
| by night at low tables sushi and tempura |
| are consumed to strains of Mozart |
| while out under the cherry trees |
| in the rosy halo of the spotlights |
| a young blond busker from the west |
| wrests eastern harmonies from the shakuhachi |
nico mann |
April 1998 |