rikuzentakata
- famous for the 70,000 pinetrees
that lined its shore -
now
as you drive over debris fields
you can still spot them in dozens
wrapped round bridges
splintered in half
punched through
the walls of houses
there's only one left standing
and now it has become the area's
sign of hope
on t-shirts and towels
so close to the (new) shore
the single pine's prospects
don't look good -
salination, erosion, root-rot -
so the town's called in the nation's
best scientists and tree doctors
to save the pine
this town
they fear
it may be too late
for that
