Samuel Lieberman

Tokyo, Winter 1946

The trees shine bare in winter’s sun,
Old bricks lie bruised in frozen mud
And look upon steel beams they once bestrode.
Old women sit among their tangerines and colored cloths
Beside a bridge that holds out broken arms
To grasp each bank.

Samuel Lieberman would have been a part of the American Occupation Army in Tokyo in the years immediately following the Second World War. ‘Tokyo, Winter 1946’ and Oh, Mt. Fuji appeared in Japan: Theme & Variations: A Collection of Poems by Americans, edited by Charles Tuttle (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1959).