David Gilbey #4 Balance Sheet

Balance Sheet

Things keep going out of my life –

I am a viaduct or an Aeolian harp –

this morning, walking in Shinrin Park

trees dripping with autumn drizzle

wet leaves – not yet the reds/yellows/browns

I couldn’t remember the katakana ‘mo’

as I recited my alphabets, a toe-hold traveller,

nor, when I met some of the rajio taiso ladies

could I remember tempura

when I wanted to tell how I was enjoying Japanese food

but I could remember three new things

hoping this signified the absence of early-onset dementia:

at the weekend imonikai in Yamagata

I ate bear stew – tender, more mild-tasting than kangaroo or venison –

akebi – bitter mountain vegetable from Tohoku,

stuffed with savoury mince and vegetables

and natto mochi – fermented soy beans and stretchy rice-cakes –

more than enough for the cultural equation.