Wakako Kaku

You’ve got a voice to sing songs
not to make speeches, right?
You’ve got ears to hear songs
not to listen to everything so you miss nothing
Your fingers are for caressing your beloved earlobes
not for pointing accusingly, right?

You’ve got limbs just to dance, don’t you?
Your hands are not for clinging to something
nor for clutching a knife
Your knees are not there for you to hug in a crouch
Your heels are not for stomping

Your skin is there to feel the breeze on your finger as it points to the sky
Your shoulders are there to catch flower petals
Your lips are for kissing
Your cheeks are there to be kissed, isn’t that right?

When each and every one of them
is used just as it is supposed to be
your body comes alive, doesn’t it?

You’ve got eyes to see the morning glow, don’t you,
however long this night might linger?

* * *
For every day’s delicious evening meal: Applause!
For the barest subsistence level – only delicious rice and pickles: Applause!

For all the piles of dog turds on the roadside: Applause!
For the rare experience of stepping on it in my new leather shoes
on my first date: Applause!

For a baby about to be born: Applause!
For a younger brother who died at childbirth –
Thank goodness he didn’t have to experience life’s hardships: Applause!

As for Grandpa who died at ninety,
for his having lived as long as ninety years in the kind of world we live in today: Applause!

Bravo for works of art by great geniuses: Applause!
As for artists endlessly beset by self-doubt, for the pleasure of their long journey: Applause!

For the well-formed person: Applause!
For the manliness of a macho who shows off in his vanity: Applause!
As for a man who constantly complains, for his frankness without vanity: Applause!

For a girl who is about to marry: Applause!
As for a girl who remains single, for her noble self-pride: Applause!

For a healthy, vibrant body: Applause!
For a man in his illness: Applause, because by that his power to survive is tested.
As for an incurable disease, for the dazzling sense it gives one that one is living at this very moment: Applause!

For a good man who will be saved as he is: Applause!
For a bad man who, because of the depths of his sin, has more room to be saved: Applause!

For the redness of a red winter camellia blooming on the fence: Applause!
For the dead winter camellia that, falling, scatters its seeds on the ground: Applause!