From "For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut‚"
by Takashi Hiraide

108

In a decidedly vacant stone plaza, you are tapped on the shoulder by the convulsions of a section of light, and turn back, to your delight. However, to think that the countless hidden fibers of the atmosphere were already attacking you at once and tying you up, shadow and all. Inside the convulsive laughter, fight. Because the fighting spirit is that of the enemy, flooding over the plaza.
Translated by Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu

From Volume 192, Number 1, April 2008

 Copyright © The Poetry Foundation