I willed
Revenge into
a masamune blade
from scratch
on an empty
stomach.

Days and nights
of fire, spit and
tit for tat

already dead
to its burden,
I wouldn’t
part till its
completion

I scorched
A path through the
valley of no-man’s

it quenched
in the stream
full of lotus
leaves, laughing
as the dull edge
tickled their
chins