This poem was written for a collection of poetry penned by southern California poets immediately after the recent 9.0 earthquake/tsunami in Japan. The collection is being overseen by several Cal State-San Bernardino graduate MFA students, and they will be hosting readings that will raise funds to send to Japan. My poem was inspired by the story of the 83 year old woman who rode her bicycle away from the tsunami.
Memory
when you had gone, the wind came, as I suppose it would high, but lonely - Emily Dickinson
she comes again,
old bones breaking free, she’s 83 years old
she comes again,
all she’s sutured together, coming undone again
she comes again,
an elderly woman making her ocean of rounds
she comes again,
riding her bicycle past the waterlogged lost and found
she comes again,
riding through the rice fields scorched by 1945
She comes again
swimming through the memories as they rise and fall
she comes again,
remembering what it was to love inside the flames
she comes again,
not forgetting, having traveled nowhere at all
-Ruth Nolan
March 13, 2011
