First teacher

22.



Mrs. Vanvranken –
What a revelation! – She
Whose raven hair floated
Wild! Inside my first-grade mind
I learned to love all learning.

We move to American Village

III. JAPAN – 1953



American Village, Nagoya

21.

A new Western home--
A two-story stucco townhouse
In a faux fauberg--
Imperial residence
For democracy’s new boots.

spring festival Nagoya

20.



In spring, the streets filled
In a blather of chimes, drums,
Fireworks and masked
Dancers driving the evil
Spirits out of the city.

The old religion still going

19.



I turned a corner,
And saw the naked heels of old
Women bowing to
A Shinto shrine, wherein burned
Incense for a world gone by.

Geisha spies

18.



We children giggled,
Climbed the limbs of spying trees,
So we could look into
The adult world of pliant, skilled
Women, and spoiled old men.

Geisha garden

17.



Across and down street,
A geisha house glowed at night –
Its garden strung with lanterns,
Soft music tinkling into
A fragrant, comforting dark.

A rat in the house!

16.



A rat in the house!
But Daddy handles him; swift
Cruel, hard justice for
The dark intruder, which no
Doubt wanted what we four had.

sweet eating

15.



Rice cakes chewed sweet as
Haitian sugar from the isle,
A tender decaying:
The islets of your body
Are feeding sweetly on you.

Street baseball

14.



I played baseball in
The cobbled street with neighbor
Children, hand signals
Served us, and the ball jumped wild-
Ly, bouncing catty-cornered.

Japanese bathing

13.



We bathed outside in
The great hooped brown wooden tub,
Soaking our bodies,
Then stepping out and washing
And rinsing ourselves in air.