No longer human
From The Blue Buddha and Other Poems
Iniquity Press/Vendetaa Books
Osamu Dazai
committed suicide
with his beautician mistress in 1948.
The lovers drowned themselves
in the cherry tree-lined Tamagawa Canal in Tokyo.
Dazai wrote several novels.
He was a popular and respected author
in post-war Japan.
In his last novel published
shortly before the suicide, he declared
he was no longer human.
Dazai was an alcoholic
and his health was in rapid decline.
I think about the authors, poets, and artists
that have killed themselves.
Hemingway, Nerval, Plath, Berryman, Woolf,
Van Gogh, Sexton—the list is long and dark.
The creative mind is capable
of mutating itself
into a cruel tormentor and executioner.
Fame and repute often slice up the soul.
Dazai chose a rain-swollen canal.
Dazai felt he was no longer human.
His final mission
was a confirmation.
