Ferguson-Rashomon
by Howard Richard Debs / June 14th, 2015
For these words alone, I was ready to pardon . . .
— from Rashomon, the movie
In 1950 a Japanese period film
portrayed the killing of a samurai
and the rape of his wife.
Four separate and different
versions of the tragedy are
vividly told by the characters
in the story: the bandit, the wife,
the samurai (as told through
a medium), and the woodcutter.
Who speaks the truth?
Who knows the truth?
Who hides the truth?
What is the truth?
A priest, with whom
the woodcutter shares
his story becomes disillusioned.
He begins to lose his faith
in humanity, seeing
each person
shaping a reality
colored by their
particular interest.
Then the woodcutter
does something magnanimous
restoring the priest’s
hope for humankind.
Howard Richard Debs is a recipient of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. His essays, fiction, and poetry appear internationally; his art and photography will be found in select publications, including
Rattle online as “Ekphrastic Challenge” artist and guest editor. His book
Gallery: A Collection of Pictures and Words is a 2017 Best Book Awards and 2018 Book Excellence Awards recipient. His chapbook
Political is the 2021 American Writing Awards winner in poetry. He is co-editor of
New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust a winner of the 2023 International Book Awards. He is listed in the Poets & Writers Directory:
https://www.pw.org/content/howard_debs Read other articles by Howard Richard, or
visit Howard Richard's website.
This article was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2015 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.
