Fiftieth Anniversary, Remembrance

After a summer of calm and heat,
the pink calla lily's one bloom curled under,
the day has fallen to wind
and water, the lake's still sheen overcome
with concentric crests. A crowd
has gathered in remembrance, Hiroshima
caught beneath their tongues, fusion of history
and the unspeakable: moment when light
shattered the city, a man pushing a cart
turned to shadow,

a figure wrapped around a huge cup
as though the skeleton
were indelible, the image burnished
into the stone path. There is no
absolution only sorrow, lanterns set in the water
with hope the dead may rest. The crowd lines
the dock lowering the lit boxes
into the lake, the ramp glowing with candlelight
and the bent shapes. I have sent mine off
with shared wishes for the past and future,

time's culmination. The thick stalks along the bank
weave a line that holds
the lanterns returned to shore,
paper sheaths singed by flame,
smoke and ash floating
across the moon's changing face in the water –
shard, flask, a scrim of filament
and fossil – and across the open wild irises,
their yellow petals flared
like torches circling the lake.

Nancy Dickeman

YouTube Interview

Discussion of the piece - Fiftieth Anniversary, Remembrance by Nancy Dickeman (interview with Mike McCormick)