Abstract
The Execution of Goemon Michael Schmeltzer (bio) Note: Ishikawa Goemon was a Japanese outlaw who stole gold and valuables to give to the poor. He and his young son were publicly executed after an assassination attempt on Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The outlaw holds his son above his headto save the boy from boiling alive. Or the outlaw holds his young son above his headthen plunges him in the boiling oil. In all versions we need the fatherto show us how to die with arms uplifted as if in praise, as if he couldraise his child to paradise. * A riddle: Which version of this thief shows the most mercy? Which version of the son the heaviest? A riddle: Who died first? The father who killed his son swiftly or the father who died knowing his boy was next? * [End Page 14] In the great war a soldier’s teethwere battered from his mouth for their gold crowns. In this wayhe became monk-like, a vow of poverty smashed into his face. * Because he diedexperiencing such cruelty he must have also knownenlightenment, a moment of such clarity when mercywas all that was left and all time became now and all tastewas blood and rice and miso soup his mother made when he was sick and knew it would bedinner time because no more teeth or gold or sons or fathers, no valuein beating a dying man in a wrecked field inside the gaping war-mouthfull of oil and fire and men bellowing, armedto the teeth, willing to gnash the bone of a fatherfor the sake of their sons. * Dear Deities of the Great War,dear Emissaries of the One Stillness, [End Page 15] before you belch up bombs and bodies,I ask you break my jaw with the butt of your riflesso I may know which words are most precious. When I speak again it will be as onewho knows peace like an ache of healing, like an arcof a bullet that misses its target. * When my father found the courageto hold an immeasurable tenderness in his hands, it was then he finally heldhis granddaughter up. [End Page 16] Michael Schmeltzer Michael Schmeltzer is the co-author of the nonfiction book A Single Throat Opens, a lyric exploration of addiction and family. His debut Blood Song was a Washington State Book Award Finalist for Poetry and longlisted for the Julie Suk Award. Schmeltzer was born in Japan and eventually moved to the US. He currently lives in Seattle with his family and is the President of Floating Bridge Press. Copyright © 2021 Pleiades Press