THE END OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

Hands with wings lift a thing with just a touch
To exalted stations, fiefdom's phylum—

New movements in the manors, in the fields
Retainers sheathing swords for foreign words—

             Counting Roman numeral skyscrapers
             As they encounter the numinous sky

             Counting Roman numeral skyscrapers
             As they greet the multitudinous skies

Bashō's snows, melted into lonely streams
Of memory, off the edge of the world—

Shogunate's signets by the shogun, shunned—
The ronin's restless roving laid to rest

Laid to rest


James Bradley