The vibration of an untempered instrument
in a keen or keening mode
modulations of a modular scale
in the most untoward pitch gradations
Emergences or emergencies?

one will never be the same.

Before having such questions
            had to pretend not to have them, had
to seem another way.
            One studies
the possibilities of being
            normal, reasonable (reasonably)
for a long time--and why not.
            Normal is: there are,
you know, places to sit, a place to sleep, friends,
            food enough to cook and eat, generally.
But if the children die from germ-teeming water?
            If their little guts turn inside out.
If the ocean surges with radiation.
            If the world is dislodged from its own implausible grace.
If all the checks and balances are washed over
            as if they never were,
If the things that break and give had once been labeled "strong,"
            guaranteed, profitable--or at least "legal,"
if nobody could have possibly
            imagined ...
if it is suddenly again and again unbearable
            to see the house or tent or zone crashed down
to see this etching pain ...?

            To not be able to assume a normalcy---and then
have to ask:
            how in consequence properly to be.

Don't assume that you will act that well
            the way you often think you will.

The news report on the recto side concerning Naoto Matsumura comes from the New Zealand Herald.
April 2012, by-line Julian Ryall, for Telegraph Group Ltd.