Tales from the Apocalypse

Izanami Remembers

Izanami had seen it all before

Long ago;

a heroic sacrifice in a sacred war.

A little girl,

an innocent in a violent world.

She remembered,

sitting in the school room

looking

at the clock on the wall;

11:02 am

and the noisy silence that followed.

she remembered

that day

August 9^th 1945

well.

She remembered,

 a scorching hot day; 3000, 4000 degrees

Cicadas

singing in the trees

Lotus blossom

floating on a listless breeze

then long ago.

But…even now

she hears the screams,

the sound of the dying, burning

in her dreams.

She remembered

being too stunned to cry,

and feeling no pain in the ashen rain.

Sitting

in the rubble

waiting for the sun to rise.

She remembered

no pangs of hunger but a strange weakness,

sickness and diarrhoea;

A tiny purple body covered in lumps,

her hair coming away

in clumps,

and for many years

she cried crimson tears,

then long ago.

 Izanami had seen it all before

she knew

he was back to settle a score.

She would not survive,

not this time.

She was glad Kagutsuchi

 had come again,

 he looked more beautiful

than before.

Her last thought

before he rooted out her eyes.

And she remembered no more.

© P Williams 2003