A Love Poem for the Lost Spirits of Aokigahara

Most Ubasute become rather bitter after passing,
and who can really blame them…
yet, the nameless one
who refers to herself as ‘Eighty-Three’
was not only ready for her Final Journey,
but had, indeed, herself suggested it to her family.

Eight decades on, and she is as busy as a bee
… whispering the seeds of ‘Hope’,
cleverly and persuasively,
into the ear of a young woman,
twenty-five years of age…
who cannot see past her own Pain,
and is carrying the weight of her Despair
across her buckling shoulders
like she somehow deserves the Torture
… she does not, she is only meant to ‘Learn’.

Three hours later, and they have left, forever,
the unemployed, makeshift noose behind
and ‘Eighty-Three’ has coaxed her
back along the gnarly, Forest pathways
to one of the Entrance signs, which reads
‘Think carefully about your children, your family’
where a man of thirty-five is stood crying.

‘Eighty-Three’ whispers to the young woman
“Watch him, and do not look away”.
Then she crosses to the man of thirty-five,
subliminally connects, and starts rewiring.
When ‘Eighty-Three’ is done with her magic,
she snaps her spiritual fingers, firmly…
and the young woman, touched deeply
and profoundly by the man’s sincerity of feeling,
holds wide open her arms in his dazed direction.

They Live a simple, yet, happy Life, together now
within a rich and blissful comfort
that neither one had previously known existed.
Where ‘Love’ stems and blossoms
from the very same plant
as ‘Compassion’, ‘Caring’ and unselfish ‘Sharing’
… and where the many Levels of ‘Light’
far outmatch and outweigh the Depths of Darkness.

Paul Tristram is a widely published Welsh writer who deals in the Lowlife, Outsider, and Outlaw genres.  He wrote his first poem as a teenager following his release from the (Infamous) Borstal ‘HMP Portland’, and he has been creating Literary Terrorism ever since. Read other articles by Paul, or visit Paul's website.