Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo.

the mother
who dwells within me
is smiling
as she nurses an infant,
a younger mother than now

my mother
has become
my beloved child,
put to bed
in a pure white room

my life
is without a future -
meantime
I've increased the earring holes
in one of my lobes

time after death,
immeasurable -
I will put together
a bundle of dim lights
and walk on

there are probably
poems that only I
can write -
I prefer cherry trees
after their blossoms

unconscious
my mother sleeps on,
beside her
I drift away a little
from the time of this world

I will live feeding on my heartbreak--
at my feet
the silence of love
laps like wavelets

what emptiness,this -
on the surface
of the marsh
a blue heron stalks,
casting a long shadow

in the end
I will be
nothing but spirit,
eyes and ears
all gone

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