Plumeria's eyes bulged in their sockets as she caught a glimpse of the last time she'd uploaded her poetry collection. October, the numbers seemed to jeer. She had abandoned her collection since October, and now it was well into November!
She sighed, and silently made a pledge: in no way would she ever forget the things that mean the most to her ever again. In no way would she ever forget Wang Yao and Honda Kiku; the fictional characters who'd breathed life into her when her own looked to be at the stage of dissipating into nothing.
And in no way would she ever abandon her temporary purpose of existence ever again: that is, to spread the good and poetic name of Sino-Japan.
Ladies and gentries, Plumeria-hi has returned. Boo-yeah.
Two Inches Taller
A good couple grows tall together.
My Kiku was
Small as is perfect.
Dainty and slight,
We looked the picture together.
I surpass him by
Four centimetres.
•
I ought to.
After all, it would be
Peculiar,
Him exceeding me,
When I'm the one to shield him from harm.
•
One day,
However,
He came to me different.
•
I died a few seconds
When I'd
Opened the door
And saw him.
•
Towering above me
By two inches.
•
"Yao?
You look as if you've
Seen
A ghost."
•
"If he's hoisting you up,
Maybe there's some
Truth
In that statement."
•
Kiku's brow creased,
Before a shadow of knowing
Skirted his eyes.
•
"I think I understand what you mean."
•
"You had another growth spurt."
•
He shook his head with a laugh,
And hitched his robes up to
Reveal
A pair of platform clogs.
•
"My geta", he explained,
"it is a must for the rainy season."
•
I nodded,
Pretending to understand.
•
He shook his parasol dry,
Returned my smile and
Allowed me to lead him inside.
•
My Kiku.
My small, perfect Kiku;
Two inches taller than me?
•
I will not stand for it!
•
Perhaps it was
The sense of inferiority which scorned me,
Being the knight that was
Two inches
Shorter
Than his damsel-to-be.
•
Clutching his parasol,
We went to the wet markets.
•
As Kiku was sifting through a selection of bean-curd,
The tittering of the vendors
Pierced my ears.
•
They must think us silly.
They must think me queer;
Embarrassing;
An Ant proposed his love to a mighty Doe.
•
But I grinned and bore it.
•
Bore through the limp home,
When Kiku walked beside me
Two inches taller.
•
And I hope
The midsummer showers will deport soon,
To usher in autumn.
To usher in a time when Kiku
Will no longer have to
Wear those wretched geta
And
Surpass me by
Two inches.
•
But little did I know.
•
The next day…
IT RAINED AGAIN!
•
Curse the pastel-coloured heavens!
Kiku had volunteered to assist me
On national obligations to a
Senior centre
That very day.
•
"You know, Kiku",
I said that morning,
"you don't have to tag along if you want."
•
"Eh?
And why this sudden change of nature?"
•
"It's raining.
It's damp and slick
And I don't want you catching a cold."
•
Kiku brushed me away.
"I'll be fine", he insisted,
"it takes more than a little rain
To down a nation
As old as me."
•
So he swaddled himself in a shawl,
Slipped on his geta
And trailed off ahead of me.
•
At the centre,
The honourable elders simpered me
With their toothless chortles.
•
They must think we are unusual.
Your thread is tangled and not in the will of God;
They think we're ancients in the wrong time and place.
•
One grandmother who had
Warmed up to Kiku,
Had asked him
If he was the older husband.
Kiku had told me this with a laugh.
•
I nodded complacently,
But inside the shame was impaling.
•
So I decided to take action that very night.
•
Heaven spittoon me in showers again the next day.
I didn't care.
I was sipping soup in the dining room when…
"Yao? Yao!"
•
"Coming!" I answered.
•
When I got to the verandah,
Kiku
Was frowning over the shoe rack.
His geta had mysteriously vanished overnight.
•
"Do you know where they are?"
He asked me.
I shrugged,
But said he could borrow my old military boots.
•
We arrived at the
Senior centre,
With Kiku
Four centimetres below me once more,
And sodden socks
I'd protested loudly against.
Makes me wish I could whip out his geta,
And bestow it upon his feet.
•
But of course,
It wasn't like I knew where they were.
•
All was silent and well with the honourable elders today.
We were respectable;
Ancient missionaries.
Our thread survived the tangle
And stretched long and clear,
A palpable bridge.
•
The grandmother Kiku had made a
Trusted acquaintance,
Was told Kiku's husband surpassed him by
Two thousand years.
She scanned me, then
Politely nodded.
She said it wasn't hard to see now.
•
All went well
Until Kiku found his geta,
Hiding in a sack at the pantry.
•
A drafty morning later,
I was greeted by a surprise
Awaiting on the verandah.
•
A second pair of geta
That smelled pleasantly of ointment
And the antiquity of wood.
•
"It's a must for the rainy season."
Heart lurching,
I whipped around to see Kiku
Hovering by the doorway,
A mixture of tenderness and
Satisfaction
In his funny little smile.
•
"Why did you get them?"
I wanted to know.
•
"Because you were unhappy",
He said.
•
"Against what rubric, exactly?"
•
"You were glum the whole week,
AND
You smuggled my geta."
•
I blushed.
His smile widened.
•
"But it wasn't until you developed
Thieving tendencies",
He chuckled,
"That I knew
Action
Must be done swiftly.
So I asked for advice from the
Grandmother
I had befriended at the centre."
•
"And what did she say?"
•
"She said",
His expression softened,
"That you were
Upset
Because you were left behind."
•
My eyes widened.
•
"I excelled you by
Two inches.
But two inches alone
Was enough to desert you.
I had grown taller when you didn't.
And that made you feel
•
"Inferior to me.
Like I'd challenged your shield of wood
By betraying you with a
Mallet of fire;
Consuming your shield
And leaving the rest of the world to
Scorn
Your name.
•
"because I grew taller by
Two inches
When you didn't."
•
I blinked,
Unsure of what to say.
Kiku came and stood beside me.
The plank I was standing on
Was concaved
By four centimetres.
We were one and the same.
•
"So I asked her:
Oba-san.
What am I to do
To refrain my husband
From thinking of such things?
And she smiled, and
said:
•
"Grow tall together
Like all good couples should."
•
"She was one of my people;
Migrated to China
With her love to give,
And two pairs of geta
To present to her husband-to-be.
He's gone now,
So she gave this to me.
•
"And now,
We give this to you."
•
That morning,
We clutched the parasol, and
Walked through
A drizzle,
Two inches taller
Together,
Like all good couples should.
The geta is a pair of traditional Japanese clogs. The type of geta described here is the ones with two wooden "teeth" underneath that serves as platforms, hoisting the socks above marshy grounds during the rainy season.
Sharing a parasol is a romantic symbol in pop Japanese culture.
And Yao is seriously 4 centimeters taller than Kiku.
And... On a side note, I don't think there are any rainy-day geta out there tall enough to give Kiku a two-inch boost though, so that might be a little hard getting a picture of. Unless he's wearing the geta that hostesses wear. In that case, we can start talking about putting him in some elaborate hostress kimono of some sort for a future poem, da?
-Plumeria-hi