Sakura

Sakura

You bloomed and blossomed and fell on the ground
and as your petals flew around in the wind
they greeted your ephemeral smile as you fell,
with the war-cry : 'Sakura, Sakura'

They made out of you an emblem of war, an emblem of a fierce identity.
They carried you painted on the side of the bomber
reminding them of your frail and fragile hold
on the branch of life.

"Sakura, Sakura , you are the love that blossoms and lives for an instant.
You know not how you stoked the fire of war and taught the soldiers to die,
their bodies strewn all over the land
like your petals strewn in the ice below.

'Sakura, Sakura, your destiny, a strange destiny it was
to live embedded among the emblems of ferocity : dragons and tigers, submerged in the belligerence and the atrocities of war,
silently witnessing the carnage, and that too in all humility!

'Sakura, Sakura,  in your name the emperor was honored
and the youth disregarded their hold on life.
Sakura, your beauty overwhelms me.
I stand before the tree that blossoms and holds you on its jagged branch, delicately poised and alive.
But I do not know the burden of the song I should play for you, for I am devastated as I face your blossom.
I am devastated
by the weird aesthetic in which they framed you
and am helpless as I bite my lip to control my sorrow
and the tears which I cannot hold back.