Since my younger sister will get married, the men in uniforms of the removal company are putting her moving boxes into the truck. On the soybean-coloured lawn in the backyard, dogs, cats, and crocodiles are running around with excitement.

I am sitting on the porch and looking at them. A crocodile crawls out of the dry pond and bites on a hind leg of the Kishū-dog Apollo 13. The sky of sunny day in winter is a liar like a false tooth made from white enamel.  As if the PM promises that it will never rain forever. The Kishū-dog Apollo 11 – he is about eighty years old in human years – lands next to me. He calms down his dusty white fur, says with a straight face. By the way, your husband has just died. Apollo 11 salivates, breathes a smell of beast out and laughs. His tongue which has expired is hanging out of mouth. I cry. Cover my face with the laundry that I just took in and cry. The cotton striped shorts I bought at MUJI are entwined around my arm like a chain bracelet.

I went to the funfair alone on Wednesday night. I had my bag snatched away at the ticket booth, but a policeman caught a thief on the spot. The Godzilla show started near the Ferris wheel by the sea, and the policeman on patrol smiled at me. I ate crêpe sucrée at the café along the Route 16. Intoxicated by the sweetness of whipped cream and plum liquor, I was dreaming of a holiday with my husband at the funfair.

At the window, my father opens a small box with handkerchiefs that I had carefully ironed in the past, and lipsticks, a mirror, a memoir. My sister is gazing at a ballpoint which I was cherishing. My father puts it in the inner pocket of his jacket. On the dead lawn, the crocodile that has completely dried up to the stomach and bowels is devouring my flesh to satisfy his thirst.

…

hiromi suzuki is a poet, fiction writer and artist living in Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of Ms. cried – 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (Kisaragi Publishing, 2013), logbook (Hesterglock Press, 2018), INVISIBLE SCENERY (Low Frequency Press, 2018), Andante (AngelHousePress, 2019). Her works have been published internationally in poetry journals, literary journals and anthologies.
Web site: https://hiromisuzukimicrojournal.tumblr.com/
Twitter : @HRMsuzuki

Note:  Revenge of the Lawn is a part of the first poetry collection Ms. cried – 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (kisaragi publishing, 2013 ISBN978-4-901850-42-1). This poem written in Japanese has been translated by hiromi suzuki, 2020.

The first publication: Eureka May Issue, 1999 (Seidosha, Tokyo Japan)