Dear Yukio Hatoyama,

Leaving your office, your staff gave you a taxpayer-funded bouquet of flowers. Your pregnant term did not even last nine months.

I’d like to give you something more personal from my heart, to show my love for my country of choice, Japan. I admit it’s somewhat frank and candid, but please see my gift as a token of my responsibility as a permanent resident.

After having written six unanswered open letters to you since December last year, this small bouquet contains minimal reflections, and some of my concerns.

Caged pigeon coos yes Noisy muscled hawks nest close Listen silence left

Pigeon chills slowly Peace twigs whirl from heaven down Predators land first

Nagata theatre Spotlighted somnambulists Pale audience sighs

Morality down Your money’s toilet paper Pecunia non olet

Money parachute Handling money is an art Marrow gets frozen

Sucking state’s nipples New winds do not change old ones Money is sweet milk

First happy wife shops Man soaks silk neckties with tears Servant still flies high

Playing blind with fire Overpaid compassion deaf Are you Japanese?

A’s croak still loudest Frogs in my pond cannot fly Tears keep water high

Unfit bragging eels Sated with slime nil phrases Fat winding twisting

You can hear my voice Nagatacho is sealed up Phoenix dies in ash

Servants gulp my tax Perverted indifference This cancer eats all

First man looks inside Outside all birds sing their songs Fate man: made sadness

Decent Prime eats time Makes believe good intentions Alas time eats man

Males luxuriate Guzzling Japan all seasons We love you white lie

We trust our payments Perverted morality Forgot verify

Perfect v. hollow Cheerful koi swim in soft winds Politicians smell

Yellow ever bright Their lacking colorless guts Our true mimosa

Vultures circle HIM Phony hypocrites attack Lax and cheap pays off

Grey’s record red debts Camellia leaves are shining Why I have to pay

Small perfect beauty Sweet skillful happy swallow Leaders make a mess

Delightful springtime Swallows nest under our roof Tax sucks us empty

Limp politicians New season unfolds flowers Yellow irises

Dead hollow phrases Collide with sincerity I hate parasites

Half of bureaucrats Underneath rhododendrons All generals too

Simplicity’s death Lax bureaucrat’s jobbery Worsening pays off

Cancerous leaders Guiding us to an abyss Fig leaves’ smell is gone

Blueberries ripen Decent intentions worsen Somnambulist’s life

Frogs jump all around Try catching a friendly one In government trap

Ignorant first man Flies governmental airplane Ehhhhh I did not know

Incompetent jumps Jack in the box’ empty hand Pay me and follow

Lax first jay walker’s Inalienable right keeps Japanese deep down

Too many villains Shamateurist lawmakers Paracitical

Moneygrubbers come Razzle-dazzle razzmatazz For money stupid

Arrogant scions Leaders fail our litmus test Trust but verify

Wishy-washy men Do not feel their empty words It is our own fault

Our loopy leader Feels the weight of his own words I am getting mad

Crying or laughing Where is your damn dignity? Nonentities rule

My goodbye kiss to Mandarins, politicians Kiss of death of course

The only harvest Bills of reckless amateurs Why I have to pay

For incompetence An average company Sacks you in disgrace

Why all that jazz . . . zzz Lax irresponsible you Insensitive you

Making rock stone walls Resembles haiku puzzling Solid no concrete

Doc H fairy-tales Intention-anesthetics No operations

A pampered surgeon Gives a strong anesthetic Fails to operate

H loves nature much So he plants young trees upturned Roots in burning sun

Most Okinawans Government still detains as POWs

H drills into nerves Of healthy teeth and grinders Shunning rotten ones

Resigned Japanese Hire costly incapables Topsy-turvy life

Make people suffer What is the correct title? Criminal I think

H’s Odyssey Is no Odyssey Flying at our cost

Shampooed neat soft hair Never a cogent approach Ominous selfish

DOLF VAN GRAAS

Sagawa, Kochi Pref.

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