Tim Taylor

Leopard

Silent, motionless

it seems no more than random patterns,

shadows cast on bark by leaves.

A twitch reveals two blobs as ears;

beneath them, eyes are watching.

A blade of fear transfixes me

and yet, there is no roar, no leap

no apocalypse of teeth and claws.

The leopard yawns, not tempted

by this odd, two-legged prey.

I regain control of limbs and back away.

Secure, I can appreciate 

the beauty of that latent power,

a work of art draped lazily over a branch.

But I am not fooled: if the cat is harmless

it has already killed today.

Yasushi Ikeda

Hornet

Your eyes disgust a hornet but your dream keeps it.

Your fingers cannot grasp its wings but your heart unconsciously produces its poison.

Your hornet appears from everywhere.

It hides behind leaves, creeps inside a shoe, slips into the gap of your memory, watching your behavior, and pricks your week point.

If you are terrified of it, it becomes bigger and stronger, the sound of its wings always heard, but you cannot see it though you turn your head.

It flies between your legs, stops silently on your back, measures where your thought falls short, and tries to snipe.

Your hornet can prick you at any time.

You can never run away.

It is next to you as long as you are you, and pricks you when you hope, but pricks you even if you don't hope but a wild flower whispers you had better be pricked.

Nambara Jushi

Ten “Tankas” from “The Endless Sky”

In heavy rain my clothes got dripping wet

And clung to my body,

I ran through the devil’s shop curtains.

The boy failed to ask

Whether he should throw away all of the rotten orange 

Or part of it.

I was hit harshly

But I stood up 

Even though bleeding heavily.

Fingers pick red apples shining under the blue sky 

Kalium is emitting 

From the primary somatosensory cortex.

I, blindfolded,

Slightly feel a knife near my neck. 

The bell tolls.

The ogre with bloody eyes

Angrily bit and tore out from inside my body 

And sat as cool as a cucumber.

Out of a lot of masks hidden in the closet

I select a mask for today 

Wondering which is most appropriate.

I draw with a single stroke of the brush in the same way

The flight path of a bird which would fly in the sky 

Where I would not be in the future.

“The full moon is especially big in the night sky, isn’t it?”,

I want to ask all the people of the world both in the past and in the present.

The moon is full tonight.

The human comedy is coming out of the brain network,

What value does that secretion have 

If you don’t have pride yourself.