Sakura Poem by C Richard Miles

Sakura, cherry blossom, flutters snow-soft, so soft, down
Across the shattered flotsam of a flattened fishing town,
Homes battered into matchwood as the sea grew tea-brew brown
Souls scattered to displacement camps or swept aside to drown.

And as the blossom settles, tumbling from the twisted trees,
It's followed by massed snowflakes jumbling in the biting breeze,
To bring a needy nation nearly humbled to its knees
Condemning the survivors grumbling as they starve and freeze.

Cold comfort for this country, yet more gloom for those who cry
To match the wheeling seagulls screeching in the soft spring sky
Where this tsunami brought such evil; we just wonder why
Earth's nature means that many decent people have to die.

And still a silent fall-out threatens which may be much worse
From Fukushima's wreckage, which they struggle to immerse
With cooling wetting sea-spray hoping that they will reverse
A nuclear disaster beckoning with its cruel curse.

Though earthquakes wreak their worst, we still can look through hopeful eyes;
Humanity will conquer every challenge life supplies
For as they face the future, we are sure Japan will rise,
A phoenix from the ashes, their resilience never dies.