The Coolest Umeboshi Poem in the World

All the difficult hours and minutes

are like salted plums in a jar.

Wrinkled, turned steeply into themselves,

they mutter something the color of  sharkfins to the glass.

Just so, calamity turns toward calmness.

First the jar holds the umeboshi, then the rice does.

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.(first appeared in Poetry magazine; used with permission).

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