It’s Not The Same

The demonstrators who…filled the streets…

the suicide core of the…who attacked…

And the students who charged against the riot staves of police…

They weren’t the same people.

…

what happened to all those people after that?

Nothing is ever quite the same

each time is different from every other

the heart of each person is disconnected.

But if there is one thing

that is the same,

it is that neither the newspapers nor television

ever reported on those young men after that.

And

the enemy in the world today

is not the United States,

is not the Soviet Union

but, bridged between you and me

unidentifiable

words of silence.

                                   ~Fukunaka Tomoko*

 

*cited:

The Burning Heart

K Rexroth & I Atsumi