Eternal Virgin
Which me do you want? The daughter
watching her father watch the Noh play
in Late Spring, or the widow in Tokyo Story
in a train moving further and further away
from the town, the teacher in a classroom
the young sister-in-law of the widow I
played. The day before my leaving, the girl,
“Is life heartache?” Yes, I told her, yes, it is,
what she hadn’t hoped to hear, her mother
suddenly gone, her father a widower, I
their daughter by marriage, the only one
who opened the door of her heart to them
their final days as husband and wife,
under my roof. Having been shunned by
their own children. Didn’t I look wistful,
smart in my western skirt and blazer
seated in the train? That close up, my eyes.
A person says, I’ve never seen such beauty!
It’s all in my eyes. Setsuko, eternal virgin.
A movie star, I retired early, never married.
In the audience of the Noh play, my father
with the woman he’s to marry. Don’t leave
me, father, I say with my eyes. He and she
watch raptly the masked players.
- © Peter Mladinic 2022
Peter Mladinic’s fourth book of poems, Knives on a Table is available from Better Than Starbucks Publications. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, USA.
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