In Like a Lion & The Sound that Afternoon

By Suzanne Kamata

In Like a Lion

Image © Chris Green (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgreen/4193846068/)

Because March mornings
were so blustery
I felt I had to hold onto everything
with both hands
and all of my strength
or I would lose
the world.
In my black rubber boots
with my mittens on a string
I wanted to walk up the hill
become taller
larger
big and broad enough to
block the wind.
I wanted to part the clouds
with a swish of my arms
to be
the king – or queen
of the universe.

The Sound that Afternoon

When the boy playing in the sandbox
in the courtyard
shuddered
hearing the sound of a gunshot echoing
he sensed something.

When the woman
who’d been hanging the laundry
ran off in her apron
she saw something.

When the young man’s soul soared toward heaven
leaving his bullet-riddled body
he heard something.

Image © Scott Robinson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/27454797/)

I think it was
a mother crying.

I think it was
the sorrow of the world.

Suzanne Kamata is the author of Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible, which was named the APALA Young Adult Honor Book. Her next YA novel, Screaming Divas, will be published in May. She lives in Japan. Follow her on Twitter @shikokusue