Self-Portrait as Shakuhachi
Robert Okaji
How easy to let air
slide through oneself.
Or, being air,
complete those brief
tasks, a song of many
whispers weaving through
tall grass, sculpting regrets
from that caressed cheek,
beyond dance and speech,
where words go for comfort
and nothing contains us.
Not joy, not contrition.
Neither hope nor peace.
Not even love.
Robert Okaji is a half-Japanese poet living in Indiana. His work has appeared in Vox Populi, Slippery Elm, Threepenny Review, Panoply, Mockingheart Review and elsewhere.