“they’re so resigned to what their fate is / but not us (no never) / we’re far too young and clever”

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday:

Tokyo, Winter 1946, Samuel Lieberman

The trees shine bare in winter’s sun,
Old bricks lie bruised in frozen mud
And look upon steel beams they once bestrode.
Old women sit among their tangerines and colored cloths
Beside a bridge that holds out broken arms
To grasp each bank.


Lieberman was part of the American Occupation Army after WWII. This was first published in a 1959 anthology of poems by Americans about Japan.

---L.

Subject quote from Come On Eileen, Dexys Midnight Runners (now just Dexys).