うちの中

ねむけがこない

ちょっとやだ

 

Half-closed eyes

Count heartbeats between flashes

See how far the storm is

When the room lights up

White

Momentary

Unforgiving

 

It’s common in the evenings

Like afternoon sun showers

On the drive home

The sky turns dark, pitch

You can only see the clouds

When electricity crawls across them

They glow in eerie light

Or crack in spiderwebs

 

Lightning never strikes the same place twice

But I keep moving—forward, back,

I am the rod misguiding

Its route, re-aiming,

It keeps striking

My heart, my skin

Is red, burned, peeling

There’s no aloe or cream 

To soothe it, lull it, coax it into s l e e p,

It’s life, this lightning, straight from sky to me.

 

くらいとき

目をしめないで

光ある

今かくれてる

 

I lived in strike zones

Home in buzzing light shows

Raised in lightning’s model

Silence, Emptiness is disquieting

When your classroom was

The lightning capital of the world

 

We grew up never fearing storms

Because the air was always buzzing

Lightning claps when the tension is 

High, we clap when the show begins

We know where the trouble is,

How to stare into its eyes

 

Come brilliantly

Come boldly

Come breaking false peace

Don’t let them forget

A force of nature

 

いなびかり

くらいところで

光なる