For Mishima
\nBy
\nJoseph Anthony Petro<\/p>\n
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\nWear a kimono,
\nDawn the sun,
\nSweat with your lovers
\nAnd night soil men,
\nPut down your tanto,
\nLift up the pen,
\nSweat with your lovers,
\nAnd dance in the snow of your words.
\nStep one way
\nOr the other,
\nAway from the purgatory
\nOf being trapped in the fourth wall,
\nGo beyond shame,
\nGo beyond dysphoria,
\nAnd sweat with your lovers
\nAnd night soil men.
\nLet the mask of your grandmother,
\nMask of St. Sebastian, mask
\nOf traditions, mask of the broken mirror,
\nAnd let them melt away like painted snow,
\nAnd then dance Imperial Crescent Moon–
\nDance with your words
\nAnd dance with yourself
\nAnd sweat with your lovers
\nIn beds of satin,
\nTake Omi\u2019s hand\u2014his white-gloved hand,
\nAnd walk the dew covered grass
\nTo the Golden Pavilion,
\nAnd wrestle with him, like a child
\nIn its golden light,
\nBlossom in his arms,
\nLet him cool your fevers
\nAnd clear your lungs
\nWith his breath,
\nAnd let the terrible destruction
\nWrought by shame
\nAnd straying too far
\nFrom your luminous beauty,
\nFall away like cherry blossom petals in spring,
\nAnd dance, dance in the fields
\nOf your flame-colored words,
\nAnd let the Emperor of Peace
\nRule your troubled and elegant land.<\/p>\n
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