KEKORO

 

Not an oiran nor a tayu nor even 

The lowest grade of geisha 

Just a kekoro standing in a boat

Wearily beating a small drum

To announce she can be rented

For a very small price. Katsukawa Shunsho

Made a quick sketch of her; she's in

The background of a few prints 

And once appears as the main subject.

She turned up here six months ago

Saying  "The Agency said 

You might have some work for me."

She's not survived the final cut

In any poem but has worked enough

To have an ID and is entitled to eat

In the commissary. 

                     What? Of course there's

A commissary for my regular crew

Where soup is always available.

Do anything long enough involving

Irregular workers and one day there is

A commissary where those with IDs

Are entitled to eat soup twice a day

Some days' soup is better than others

But soup is still soup except on Thursdays

When it's stew. (The actors I can afford

For my poems mostly look like 

Free soup is welcome.) There are rumors

Of an executive dining room but

I've never been asked to eat there.