Kamaishi Seashore Song

As the ground stilled, stunned

the water receded. 

Above the sirens

and gnashing of roofs

into walls,  

her voice,  I breathed. 

I’m not

a young man.

The shore bowed

with an artist’s deference

and the wall behind her

opened like a mouth.

Orpheus shaking

in a wet underworld,

I lifted her,

heavy on my back

when I expected

lightness.

Throat to my ear,

she hummed the song

and I climbed

as the town became shore,

I climbed

and she became weightless,

I climbed

bearing the song that contained both our lives,

I climbed

as water roared like applause, rising like an an audience on its feet.