A Memory Preserved in Amber

The wood of Yanbaru.
The dawn 1000 years later.
The thing excavated
Preserved gently in amber
Is a piece of cloth.
That seems to have been worn
By some human in ancient times.

This article of clothing
Of a sort we no longer wear
Seems, from the traces of gunsmoke on it
To be a costume worn for an activity called "war"
That occurred often in the second half of the 20th
And the first half of the 21st centuries.

Into these warps and wefts
That have slept so soundly
In the embrace of this cradle called amber,
How much memory　of blood has been rubbed?

Let us keep on talking before we forget.
Let us ask, every time we remember.

Before the scars engraved in our DNA
Are mended.

Before the many thoughts soaked into the fiber
Return　to the soil.

translated by chinin ushii

cooperation by katsuren seizen & kurashima you

LIFE
AS
A GARAGE