Somewhere in Chiba: An Elegy

Somewhere in Chiba, 
A wholeness of a once 
Fruitful life is
now
kept in a single box. 
Why?, I asked the orchestra 
of the June rain. 
It took an image 
of a single box, 
for me to disembowel life
one of its secrets: 
We are all buds
Of a single tree. 
The tree is a plum blossom. 
A single bud fell somewhere in Chiba;
I felt its loneliness. 
I asked the tropical Filipino air
to heed fast, 
to grasp, 
and to take my little prayers 
somewhere in Chiba. 
I pray that 
soon, somewhere in Chiba,
a forever summer
will thaw the winter
in the heart of a friend.

Somewhere in Chiba, 
wander woman decides to go home. 
I think she, too, knows
that 
in Chiba
where my feet have never set, 
some hearts have wept.

(May 2020)
|| 💮🌸 RIP Camille-san. I placed your photo beside the Virgin Mary, Mother Mediatrix of All Grace so she may be with you wherever you are.