The Roster (Poem)

Katsushika Hokusai, The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)

Color Woodblock Print from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1829-32

The Roster

Two hundred sixteen sheets
        of plain printer paper plaster

the public gymnasium's walls.
        Some number command many

other eyes elsewhere in the shelter,
        every scrap a make-shift of details

of what you cannot hold:
        height weight gender hair length

last place seen last time seen
        blurring in the blanks

of the roster checked
        and checked and checked again.

Not to find a name is not to find nothing.

In the golden tallgrass on a hillock
        outside town, soldiers prod and poke

with long, thin diviners' rods
        as snow freshens pines capped off

with fishers' nets. They gather
        and tag the morning's remains

of the last day: a lone business card;
        the Nikkon, its memory card intact;

a beautiful young bride's picture,
        its glass holding reflection. They whisper

of the white lace
        slip dangling from the rail

of the nearby bridge: not a sign
        of surrender; shards of a teapot;

the Mickey Mouse futon
        snagged just as a kitchen sink floats

by. A mile beyond, the concrete
        foundation's spotless now that the home

with a rice paddy in its front yard
        has traveled the distance to the lake

that used to be a plain, and fertile.
        The air-filled down jacket

that saved Mrs. Sato's life
        as she rode the wave, spending

her prayers between breaths, is news.
        You hear them say the search will go on

for days. The dogs will bark,
        you know, and the teams dig and dig

till the moon sheds no more light
        on the stories left unfinished

and the all-clear sounds, even
        as the gaps in the list fail to fill.

© 2011 Maureen E. Doallas
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This poem conflates some of the details found in news accounts following the devastation in Japan on March 11, 2011.

Japan Red Cross Society Emergency Relief

Japan Missing Person Finder

Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund

Google Crisis Response Resources

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I offer this poem for the One Shot Wednesday event at One Stop Poetry, which each week invites poets to share, read, and comment on each other's work. Be sure to visit the site late Tuesday afternoon and every Wednesday for links to the many contributors' poems.
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British Museum Details on Hokusai Print

Hokusai Biography

Hokusai Online