Shinsaku Ashida Poet Free verse

I Want to Meet the Dead

More than those
who swim well,
more than those
struggling not to drown—
I want to meet you,
who no longer breathes
at the bottom of the water.

Rather than those
who speak as if they understand,
I want to hear the words
of someone
who truly knows
how it ends.

Among the living,
there is no one
I wish to meet anymore—

only half-hearted,
liars,
not even dead.

How much water did you swallow?
As you drowned,
how long
did the sun remain visible?
You would
speak the truth.
For the first time,
I would have
a friend.

From you,
I would listen to memories
like poems,
and from me,
an apology
for all I didn’t believe
while you were alive.
We would speak,
without breathing,
at the bottom of the water.

No longer striving
to become someone of worth,
no longer
reaching out
to beat the water,
no more bubbles—
not even one—
rising
in place of suffering.

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