“from Salaryman (No George)” by Michael Mejia

Michael Mejia

from SALARYMAN

Adapted Haiga

eMejiaUmami

No George. No John. No Paul or Ringo.
He crosses over accompanied only by his bag,
his suit, his solitude.

from Rattle #47, Spring 2015
Tribute to Japanese Forms

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__________

Michael Mejia: “Salaryman is a sequence of brief prose poems attached to candid photos of Japanese salarymen and -women I took during a recent trip to Tokyo, where I was researching a work of fiction. After a few days of watching these ubiquitous figures of contemporary Japanese business culture heading resolutely toward some destination or other at all hours, I began to envision a sequence of 36 views, echoing those of ukiyo-e artists Hokusai and Hiroshige, their images of Mount Fuji, bridges, and famous places in Edo. Though lineated, I conceived, and still think of the texts as prose. I didn’t intend these pieces to hold to the ‘rules’ of haiku. Rather, they appropriate the form’s concision and often its dicta concerning seasonal references.”

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