The Afterlife
.
The mass of meat
In a heap like a grave,
Cold, still
Amid wafting incense,
The moans and chants of mourning,
Eyes closed, hands clasped
Frozen in motion,
I lose interest:
Those motions of burial and propriety,
Those greetings, sympathy, tears;
He is no longer there,
Not in that body,
Twitching twisting growling in incoherence,
More and more silent
Over the years,
He is no longer there:
At last,
He is gone
.
Asylum
.
She barely remembers the rape
Monsters grow only in drugless sleep
She is well taken care of
—
Air raid on Tokyo
Baghdad
Dresden
Ukraine
— —
She no longer draws but
Cuts papers of color
Into ferns and flowers
— — —
Hunger in Biafra
A scream in Vietnam
Van Gogh’s ear
.
Bio: Yuri Kageyama is a poet, filmmaker and journalist. She is the author of “NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe by a Poet,” which was performed at New York’s La Mama and ZSpace in San Francisco, directed by Carla Blank. It was documented as an award-winning film by Yoshiaki Tago. Her short story “The Very Special Day” is a stop motion animation film by Hayatto. Her works have been published in Greenfield Review, Y’Bird, Beyond Rice, Tokyo Poetry Journal and Bigotry on Broadway (Baraka Books 2021). Her Yuricane spoken-word band, featuring Melvin Gibbs, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Kouzan Kikuchi, Winchester Nii Tete, Sumie Kaneko and other musicians, has performed at the SFJazz Center, Nuyorican Cafe, Bowery Poetry Club and plan-B. A graduate of Cornell, she has an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her book: “The New and Selected Yuri” (I. Reed Books 2011). Her site: http://yurikageyama.com
