Hiroshima Day poem: No Ordinary Sun

by Hone Tuwhare
from www.honetuwhare.co.nz


No Ordinary Sun

Tree let your arms fall:

raise them not sharply in supplication
to the bright enhaloed cloud.

Let your arms lack toughness and

resilience for this is no mere axe
to blunt nor fire to smother.

Your sap shall not rise again
to the moon’s pull.

No more incline a deferential head
to the wind’s talk, or stir
to the tickle of coursing rain.

Your former shagginess shall not be
wreathed with the delightful flight

of birds nor shield

nor cool the ardour of unheeding
lovers from the monstrous sun.

Tree let your naked arms fall

nor extend vain entreaties to the radiant ball.

This is no gallant monsoon’s flash,

no dashing trade wind’s blast.

The fading green of your magic

emanations shall not make pure again
t
hese polluted skies . . . for this

is no ordinary sun.

O tree

in the shadowless mountains
the white plains and
the drab sea floor

your end at last is written.


***


As well as commemorating the atomic bombing of the Japanese city, this poem serves as a reminder of the long, successful struggle to declare New Zealand nuclear free and break the formal military alliance with US imperialism.

I hope it will also be the first of many more poems on UNITYblog.
– David