Some Japanese poetry that once made my day better

(Summer Quarter 1999)

Ono no Komachi
~834-?

Those gifts you left
have become my enemies:
without them
there might have been
a moment's forgetting.

Izumi Shikibu
~974-1034

Which is better,
the distant lover
you long for
or the one you see daily
without desire?

I used up this body
longing
for one who does not come.
A deep valley, now,
what once was my heart.

Tawara Machi
1962-

There is this red blouse
every single time I pass
a certain store
and it is a special
bargain marked "Today Only."

You, who are now
keeping me waiting so long...
I shall keep on waiting,
in the belief that you might
be feeling somewhat guilty.

In the dead of night
a can of green peas
seduces in whispers,
"Come on now,
open us, open us."