I feel dizzy.
Because I saw the dark side of the organism called humans.
Because I touched it, albeit only briefly.
It was a completely accidental encounter.
There are some brazen adults.
They wear a mask of merit, a cloak of class, a guise of grace.
Yet beneath their polished pride, they are plagued with putrid sins.
Criminals once condemned, but never cleansed of shame.
They still flaunt their ‘respectable adulthood’ in their sludgy, coal-tar darkness.
And they beckon me to bow before them, to run to them with reverence.
What a shameful, shivering sight.
Draped in the disguise of wisdom, they are shamelessly naked.
Still sinking, still soaking in a muddy swamp.
Why do they wave their hands at me and urge me to kneel?
Is it because I have no money?
Is it because I have no power?
Is it because I look ignorant?
Is it because I look young?
Don't do stupid.
I would never step into that rotten stinking swamp.
It is a pool of blood, a mixture of human blood, organs and bones.
It is a swamp of floating souls and the smell of the blood of the dead and the souls of those who can't die and leave things this way.
I dare not draw near—death lingers there.
Now I am in the forest.
Here, I breathe the world.
I still see that sickening swamp,
but I also see the light leaking through the towering treetops.
I see the light seeping through.
Ah, the light is descending just a few steps ahead of my path.
… A glistening crystal glow.
……………………………….
On my path
an emerald green light
rolling
Scooping it with both palms
I return it to the welkin
………………………………..
I cannot enter the rotten swamp,
but I can shine a light into it.
So let us cast light upon the darkness of child marriage.
Let us expose this evil.
Let each of us stand against it.
Salvation will come.
Raise your voice, let the world hear.
The first step begins now.
Rika Inami is a Japanese Tanka poet and a member of Nihon Kajin Club, Mirai Tanka Kai, Murō Saisei Gakkai and Akita International Haiku Network. She has been composing Tanka poetry since 2003 and has published several books, including translations of English poems into Japanese. Her awards include Solution Creators Prize and Eban Prize in the EU-Japan New Space2060 International Illustrated Haiku Competition 2019 (both are in Tanka), 2022 International Poet Mid Autumn Festival Award, and Third period Seishin International Poet Award from China.
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