In A Grove (Two Parts), Rashōmon, Vanessa Ryan

 

The Woodcutter

 

In a mountain

hollow, woodcutter

sees a body

wrinkled and

worn in a

smooth silk

kimono

 

splayed like

a spray

of bamboo

leaves fallen

upon the ground

 

blossoms of blood bloom

around the corpse

A gad-fly buzzes

languidly, the lone

witness.

 

 

The Samurai

 

in the cool and green

bamboo forest

a samurai lies.

 

footsteps

somewhere

near here

 

razor edge

flash of

silent sword.

 

pain slices

like sunlight

through chest walls.

 

life ebbing,

with

each

receding

breath.

 

a killer

exits

like clouds

over the sky.


 

Rashōmon

 

The servant waits

at Rashōmon gate

where thieves

commune and corpses

lie abandoned.

 

The servant

discharged

from service

contemplates

 

a life of

crime, or

submit to

the grime.

 

Foxes scavenge

the ruins, crows

circle a murder

 

above the gate

like grains

tossed by a

violent wind.

 

A fat black

cloud plops

itself over

Rashōmon

like a curse.

 

Stone steps

crumbling,

rank grass

growing

dotted with

crow droppings

 

A gloaming

flickers from

within, an unknown

 

evil shudders like

an invisible hand

down the servant’s

hunched back, he

 

crouches like a

lizard, slowly

crawls into

Rashōmon.

 

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