Yushima Tenjin Shrine in Spring Rain – a poem by Sally Thomas

Yushima Tenjin Shrine in Spring Rain

On the woodcut print by Kasamatsu Shiro



There’s no hurry here,
Only gray doves fat with cold,
Lavender dusk snagged

In empty branches. 
By lamplight, two women have come,
Each alone, to stroll

The rain-silvered walks.
Each, anonymous beneath 
Her wide umbrella,

Holds her secret thoughts
Close to her – or perhaps no
Thoughts at all, only

Something like peace. They
Have not been asked to think, but
Only to exist,

Present and unknown,
Two women in cold spring rain
Before the trees bloom. 

Sally Thomas is the author of a poetry collection, Motherland (Able Muse Press 2020), and a forthcoming novel, Works of Mercy (Wiseblood Books 2022). Her work has appeared recently in Autumn Sky Poetry Review, Dappled Things, North American Anglican, Plough Quarterly, and Trinity House Review.