Ubasute is an ancient Japanese tradition of abandoning elderly relatives in mountains in time of hardship.

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Lean year

Bleak winter

Provision is short

Food is meager

Youngsters cry from hunger

The elderly shrivels like a withered leave

One more mouth one more to feed

Sighs the aged woman

Time to visit the mountain

Her mind is made up

It will be tonight

She informs her son

He is fidgety

She is calm

Carrying her on his back

They start a journey

Up to the desolate forest

Quietly fluffy snow falls

Silently they proceed uphill

Ice stagnates along river edges

Words freeze in his throat

His steps are laggard

Heart weighted

Then comes his mother’s voice

Telling him to put her down

Under the white birch tree

She urges him to leave

Before snow covers his footprints

Showing the returning way

The sky darkens

To veil the dejected vicissitude

The moon hides

to evade witnessing the adversity

Heading home

Tears fall down his cheeks

When wolves howling

Pierces through the weeping wind

By Shih-Fang Wang 

From: United States