Tohuko 1 Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Tohoku
When the tsunami struck in Japan five years
it hit and killed so many that nature had no time
to erase the dead completely
A man who lived in the stricken town of Tohoku
when out looking for his daughter or her toys
anything to remind him of her met the dead who
were shadows in the night and they spoke to her
his daughter was there to told her father not to
cry for her, she said of the bewilderedness of
being a shadow but wanting out as this half life
was relentless as the shadows too wanted to find
families and those who did realise to their horror
there was not a channel of communication.
So many of them walked back into the cold sea and
sought a total death no memories and no longer
a shadow be. There are fewer of the shadows now
soon there will be none, and the undead will find peace
and the ripples of Nirvana are forever soundless