With Each Step

by Michael Dylan Welch and Ryu Yotsuya

First published in Frogpond XXVII:3, November 2004, page 42. Reprinted in Hedgerow #120, Summer 2017, page 14. Originally written 22 October 2002, Kamakura, Japan. This may well have been the first rengay ever to be written in Japan.

crowded shop—

the toddler’s shoes

light up with each step Michael

the wooden geta clacks

under my 80-kilogram weight Ryu

drying seaweed . . .

a snorkeling flipper

blisters my heel Michael

sandals left

on a deserted cape—

ants carry red petals Ryu

flung to the herb garden

mud from my workboots Michael

kicked barefoot

the soccer ball

arcs over the net Ryu