I am nothing. You are right.
I’m like someone who’s been thrown
into the ocean at night.
Floating all alone, I reach out,
but no one’s there. I have
no connection to anything.
The closest thing
I have to a family is you, but you
hold on to the secret.
Meanwhile, your memory
deteriorates day by day.
Along with your memory,
the truth about me is lost.
Without the aid of truth I’m nothing,
and I can never be anything.
You’re right about that, too.
(From Haruki Murakami’s Town of Cats, translated by Jay Rubin. Submitted by Dawn Corrigan)
Verbatim Poetry 