TOBA 2 Poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa

I don't want to make this moment eternal
It is fine to own this moment just as it is
Even I have a way to seize a transient moment
The sun is already moving on

These words are merely
written on the sand
not with my fingers
but with my cheerful heart that shifts quickly to gloom

My children look like me
My children don't look like me
Either way it pleases me

Along with sea shells, pebbles and pieces of broken bottles
my heart is left at the water's edge of a planet
just as hard and vulnerable