A Japanese Schoolgirl

by Kajihara, Yoko

  “Mother.”

  (Either way won’t do any good.)

  Then we both fall silent.

  I can hear the beating of my heart grow louder and faster right in the center my head now.

  My mother starts speaking again.

  (Do you realize what you are, no, what you have become?)

  “No, mother, I’m no longer interested in such question.”

  (You’ve become an Oni yourself.)

  “No, I don’t think so, mother.”

  (You are an Oni. That’s what you are.)

  “There’s no way I can be an Oni.”

  (That’s why you have become what you are.)

  “Mother.”

  But she answers nothing.

  “Mother?”

  But I hear nothing.

  “Mother.”

  There is only a hollow silence kept in the Mobile.

  The silence feels like a void concealed in the last and the smallest doll of a Russian Matryoshka.

  Then I find the batteries being dead already.

  cover design by Maya

  to you (who has touched here)

  I am glad that you found me

  You pulled me up out of a sea of books

  But who could tell me the reason?

  An encounter is always unpredictable

  And you are like a climber of unusual daring

  I know nothing about you

  But you have already experienced me now

  I am hoping that it was a pleasant one

  Yoko Kajihara

  2012