Kome’s Story

for auntie nagasaki

it's the same story

told again & again

 

the modulations

& the machinations

 

the maudlin

& the dream

 

schemes & data

a million documents

 

& a single story

kome's

 

she said she

moved into her house

 

her dream house

on december 6th

 

fell into a deep sleep

stirred the dream

 

to wake

to war

 

& the splitting apart

her son

 

sent off to petawawa

barbed wire

 

her husband

to tête jaune

 

herself to

greenwood

 

green

wood?

 

ghost

town?

 

new names

her memory

 

& the train

(later

 

to montreal

"the commission

 

said there'd

be jobs there"

 

5 days

4 nights

 

sitting & sleeping

in the coach

 

dreaming of

the coast

 

the french tongue

the english tongue

 

words

& words

 

o

canada

Bibliographical info

Roy Miki, "Kome's Story" from Flow: Poems Collected and New. Copyright © 2018 by Roy Miki. Reprinted by permission of Talonbooks.

Source: Flow: Poems Collected and New (Talonbooks, 2018)

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