She Asks If She is Dying

by Amoridere

A poem about Reimu, during the events of Gensokyo 20XXV, and her supposed mental illness, as well as the feelings and forced acceptance thereof.

Young and sweet
Yet, silent and somewhat reserved

She is a little a girl
Her mind afflicted with lunacy
Her smile concealing her long incomprehensible misery

Of the very lunacy she suffers

She smiles
Yet from her blinded eyes are tears
Forced acceptance of something she can never tear herself away from

She looks to someone
Smiling, as if nothing is really wrong
Asking if she is dying

She's resigned herself to it
Believing it to be an illness without cure
Resigning herself to the equivalent of death

Am I dying?

In body she be well
But in mind she be ill
The misery of which eating away what sanity remains

What is being lost
May not be so easily regained
She knows that

Shikata ga nai

Yet, she asks if she is dying