Oh Tokyo
by Mike Marcellino
Opposition
politician,
psychiatrist
exiled
in America
of Taiwanese
left over
from the cream of the crop
twenty eight thousand
murdered by
the white terror of
Chiang Kai-shek.
Hard plastic solders.
Hard plastic soldiers.
Oh Tokyo,
Oh Tokyo.
They left out
Ramsey Clark
too far left,
a world
of Christians
leader,
a soldier
on another mission.
Will they kill him,
or try him?
The Mercedes flew
150
kilometers an hour
from the airport
outside of Tokyo
inches from
neon lit
concrete walls
to a night meeting
in a hotel of
all night girls
on television.
Oh Tokyo,
Oh Tokyo.
Waves of hard plastic soldiers
on the airport
runways
outside of Taipei,
tanks,
fire trucks.
Plain clothes
police
came aboard
to see if he was there.
A frenzy
through customs,
bursting
outside a sea
tens of
thousands,
cheering
Taiwanese people.
Hard plastic soldiers.
Hard plastic soldiers.
Oh Tokyo.
Oh Tokyo.
Atop a platform truck
thinking of Gandhi,
nuclear missiles,
the Chinese presidency
holding the world record
for marshal law.
Night walks
stairs to the temple,
a suspicious murder,
an opposition
leader
tried and imprisoned,
a Do Mike camera bag
in the middle of
courtroom chaos,
street riots
people against
hard plastic soldiers.
Maybe a taxi
sped off
out of sight
last tape
on the window sill.
Hard plastic soldiers.
Hard plastic soldiers.
Oh Tokyo
Oh Tokyo.
Copyright Mike Marcellino, Oh Tokyo, 2008