Nagasaki
her mother
was Japanese and
her father an American
stationed at the
Futenma air station
on Okinawa.
she was schooled
part of the year in Japan.
the children in school
pointed at her
and said
you
did this to us
the
bomb.
the children
pointed at the sky
and drew
mushroom cloud outlines
with tiny hands.
she hid in shame
and pleaded with Okaasan
not to send her
back to school.
for a long time
she felt responsible
for an atrocity
committed years
before she was born.
the memory
of those angry children
and terrible bombs
haunted her.
