the day the tsunami came
shaking first then 30 minutes warning
flee to higher ground
but lanes blocked with the flight of cars
elderly too infirm to move at speed
primary school drowns
safe places not safe enough
within the reach
of a 40 metre high in places
wall of water
consuming everything in it’s path
now some tentative housing
rebuilt in the tsunami’s path
family mart convinience store
alone
in massive plots of now empty land
where once were roads
the roads alone remain
snaking around invisible homes
the invisible present here
sorting of the stinking rubbish
large trees, tree roots, crushed cars
neatly in piles
bringing order out of chaos
brand new telegraph poles line the roads
and still the search for 3,000 missing
continues
I worry about disaster tourism
but the old man beams to see
visitors to what is left
a sign that outsiders care
or at the least some money spent
in hostel or bar
those who remain
who choose to stay
must find a way
I worry about walking on the unseen
graves beneath my feet
find some jewellery
amongst the rubble
I reach out and touch it
it touches me back
a cold hand on my spine
foundations of what-once-were
lie exposed – carcass of the home
everything ground down
fragments of pottery
toys
like a more violent pompeii
happened yesterday
encounter the sublime
force of nature
beyond the possible
building tossed on it’s side
tanker strewn across the motorway
cars hang from roof trusses
boats everywhere they shouldn’t be
catch myself in awe
and then feel repulsion
as I take photographs
tears shed
stand with japanese now-friends
silent crying
looking at the shrine
drink offerings for family dead
and in the service station
Ichiro talks of elders
laughing, crying and singing all at once
no place for irony
or intellectualism
we listen together to the Beatles
let it be
go for future
We travelled with artist Ichiro Endo on his ‘go for future’ bus from Tokyo to Sendai to Oshimato, and then around the Onhanto area with Tokyo Wonder Site staff and a curator from 1333.
