Love to you all

A little boy wants to know the mechanics of what went wrong in Fukushima, so his father draws him ‘beautiful diagrams of atomic shells and fission’, to which the boy replies, ‘What a mess!’

The boy is the son of a dear poet-friend who, a few hours ago, wrote me an email. A few days ago, she and her family left Japan in fear of nuclear fallout.

The flight out was full. ‘Across the aisle, a Japanese woman stared past me out my window. She stared until the plane taxied and she could see only air. Then she looked away, and covered her face with one of the plane’s blankets.’

The last four words of my friend's poignant email: 'Love to you all.'

Photo: Croquet balls, Gladstone, New Zealand

Text: Email excerpts from a poet. I have printed out all of her emails, am saving them.