#2482 -- how does a castle vanish?

 

2482

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19.x.26

how does a castle vanish?

Kiso Fukushima

 

three years ago they put up the sign to say

three years ago a bear was seen

 

steam rises from the wild stream

so this must be the place

 

railway town – mountain steps of old sleepers

 

traffic slows for a bridge, for the lights

 

how does a castle vanish?

 

it’s beyond the falls

 

Ontake Kodo

used to be one hundred days of indoctrination –  

the cold water training –

before you were let up

 

roars like a road, this river

that must be where we got the idea

 

someone stopped here before

it was their own superstition

it was make it up as you go

 

a stone fox then

what’s it got in its mouth?

… choking risk

 

how does a castle just vanish?

 

here’s the schoolboy with bells

on his way home

 

in three years time

come the bears

we can wait

 

here’s the red turning edge of the leaf

that’s how the season’s called