You had been so waiting for a lemon
In your sad and white and bright deathbed
Your perfect teeth bit with a crunch
Into the lemon you took from my hand.
A topaz coloured scent arose.
Those few drops of heavenly lemon juice
Suddenly made you normal again
Your shiny lucid eyes smiled faintly
You clasped my hand with such a healthy strength!
Though there was a storm in your throat
In these last moments of your life
You became the old Chieko again
You concentrated a whole lifetime of love into one moment
And then you took a deep breath,
Like you used to on the mountain tops long ago,
And in that breath your mechanism came to a stop.
Under the cherry blossoms placed before your photograph
Today, again, I will put a coolly shining lemon.