This is a poem I composed to express the feeling of summer days in Okinawa.
Drops of sweat glisten in the sun,
Trickling down flushed-out cheeks.
Like rain-wash in a stony crag,
Moisture flows and humidity peaks.
The stickiness of summer pervades
The body like a painful prick
Cicadae sing their stridulate songs,
Ad nauseam to make one sick.
The merciless heat of the season
Rides your back as you work the field.
Burdens the body, smothers the soul,
The sweltering tropics will not yield.
You’re dripping wet, just sitting still,
Stifled by the subtropic soak.
Pray to Buddha for a drying breeze,
To freshen fatigued farming folk.
With ne’er a breeze to cherish,
At last we see the setting sun.
A feeble trek home from the fields,
When a summer day’s work is done.