Ryan Sagert

A Thousand Paper Cranes

There is an old legend in Japan

That says folding a thousand paper cranes

By hand

Grants one a wish; to be delivered from loneliness

And pain

Using the Renzuru technique

In which multiple cranes are folded

From a single sheet of paper

Grandpa produced

An origami kite that was to my eyes

Pure magic.

The sun reflected

On his searing baldness that came

As a curse from radiation poisoning

After the bombs were dropped at

Hiroshima or Nagasaki

Grandpa worked into the late hours Of his life

Even after the doctors had given up hope,

But 900 cranes, it seems, was insufficient to starve off

His Death on Ulambana

In my bitterness

I folded a thousand paper cranes

Whispered to each

They had better fly home

To avoid the rain