Naoto Matsumura

Eternity how long is that
Reality how far
TOMIOKA in the Futaba district
And Fukushima’s scar
Now a nuclear wasteland
And ghost town we can say
15,000 people have upped
And moved away

A historical perspective
The 300 Cherry trees
In Yonomori park
Now of course a no go zone
Where even light is dark
Some thought it their Nirvana
But isolation does
Bring to bear a pointlessness
Now there is no buzz

Everywhere is chaos
Asymmetry as well
A diversity if interests
It has become a hell
Naoto Matsumura lives there all alone
Stayed back to feed the animals
And eat the plants he has sown

He is at a disadvantage
The radiation there
Is so at dangerous levels
With little to compare
Clearly there are hotspots
He is the radioactive man
A fifth generation farmer
Maintaining his life plan

He feeds all the animals
He does that everyday
No electricity and no water
Just candles so they say
He goes out in the forest
With his shovel thats his thing
A no flush toilet anymore
But can hear the song birds sing

From time to time some bring him
Some food it has been said
He grows asparagus and some peas
And catches eels he has led
The fight to catch the trout around
And enjoys his regular meals
Terribly radio active
But anyway he feels

Better that he stays there
The town where he was born
Probably dying slowly
But actually not torn
At all to leave
The animals are what life’s about
And if he left they all would die
He is now in no doubt

He is building up a bond with them
He’s their angel after all
They sort of hang together
Some come if he does call
He is apparently unaffected
By the radio active air
And the ramifications
Of actually staying there

He feels a solidarity
And his self sufficiency
He is the master of his replenishment
Which he manages utterly
To the bitter end he is fighting
Hook line and sinker he
Is hoping of a future
And the world will have to see.

Since the earthquake levelled
The FUKUSHIMA place
And put the world to rights
At an alarming pace
More people have developed thyroid cancers
Here and there
And this must cause a lot around
Great moments of of despair

There had been a chain reaction
A great monotony
First the walls came tumbling down
The tsunami then did see
To three great vicious meltdowns
And water fading fast
Out into the pacific
On its outward blast

An assemblage of idiots
TEPCo came to be
What with robots dropping dead
The lies told actually
Far outweighs the truths
If it be known I think thats so
And many die offs have been happening
And the numbers they will grow

Clearly a personality
A loner in a way
A non conformist which us good
Can adjust his life and pay
More attention to it
And the animals he feeds
Clearly unconventional
Which is why he succeeds

Happy with his oneness
His solidarity
Time it waits for no one
How long his tenancy
Is now
Only god knows
Or perhaps not any more
TEPCO took it all apart
And changed the natural law

The fragility of life itself
His mortality
In the arms of old father time
And provisionality
A precarious existence
Lime a candles flickering flame
But NAOTO appears happy enough
Playing his new game

His priority is the animals
His birthright was the town
Living in the aftermath
He is some what of a clown
His mask is fear and paler
Probably he be
Unsure of his expectations
And his destiny

A nobel prize was an idea
For the man who would’t go
Wouldn’t leave the place he loved
He just felt its glow
The unchangeability
Despite the enormous load
Raining down upon him
As he wanders down the road

It his perpetuation
His persistence in a way
His unremitting freedom
Why now should he pay
You could say he is obsessive
But his courage is all there
Bewitched by the aura
That he alone does share