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The Hiroshima Day
The Three Seconds When the World Went Mad
6 August 1945

Susumu Takiguchi
Oxford, England
06/08/01

 

one summer's day -- bright man-made light reduced humanity into nothingness

 

burning the hot summer -- the light brighter than the sun, unleashed by human evil

 

Little Boy from Enola Gay -- three seconds' reckless mischief, then darkness and silence

 

the three seconds when the world went mad - summer turned winter

 

immense summer sky yielding to evil forces - black rain

 

fire-fighting cistern -- packed with schoolgirls' bodies, escaping the hell fire

 

young mother wanders, holding fast her molten baby boy; in search of him

 

on the ordinary steps ivory shadow of a man, transfigured into void

 

adults as well as children were heard as they perished - calling, "Mother, Mother."

 

charred bodies float downstream - only yesterday a serene summery stream; now an ill-smelling black river

 

condemned to be barren - sooner than not, in autumn rain first sprouts of grasses

 

human survival - after the Zero Hour nature restored

 

Next: Nagasaki Threnody & The Day Japan Lost the War, 2 haiku series

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