Ascension Day
a refugee kid releases
his dragon kite
Comment: a poem with different levels of reading linked to very current social issues, first of all immigration and its related policies. The Ascension Day or Holy Thursday (shōtensai 昇天祭) commemorates the the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven, occurring 39 days after Easter Sunday. The last words He addressed to the Apostles were: ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world’ (Mt 28:20), confirming His presence and His love even after His physical disappearance. The poet asks himself if the world will follow those teachings, welcoming and loving the neighbors in distress, or if it will ignore them, letting them die in indifference in an unknown refugee camp. The picture of the kid in the last ku is particularly moving, associating the divine Ascension with the rise of a colorful kite (tako 凧), which is a symbol of life and hope.
