Dirty faced little girls
imitate geishas
late at night
when chores are done.
They practice
seductive glances,
graceful movements,
pouring tea for phantom clients.
Stealing a moment,
they gaze into mirrors
making geisha- faces
preening, casting
down their eyes,
trying to catch
mirrored reflections.
Now tender maikos,
painted lead-white faces,
sit silently,
knees padded by
layers of stiff underdress
stifling yawns
as Big Sister Geisha
pour sake
exposing
ever so slightly
a marble- smooth wrist
barely blushing with life-
Mysterious seduction!
Maiko,
silent chorus
behind performers,
observing the trade
studying the manners
peering out with furtive
eyes,
watching men
roll around tatami-
foolish, drunk-
such silly children!
Slender ‘dancing-girls’
tender split- peach hairdos
driving men to lust
a ripe and blushing fruit
sitting above the red neckline of
kimono,
a sample of fruit
to be plucked
for the right price
to okiya.
Solemn maiko,
follow the way of
full-blown geisha,
childhood
sold for a pittance,
desired and sought
for beauty, grace, talents,
trapped within silken layers-
beautiful butterflies,
nights elusive moths,
dragging through life
clipped wings
of splendid colors.
Okiya is the house where geisha and maiko live. Oka-san is the proprietress who owns and runs the okiya. A maiko is a very young girl, who sometimes enters the okiya at the age of six. She is considered a maid, and is only trained as maiko (apprentice geisha) if she shows some talent to be a geisha. These young girls do all the chores and cleaning of the okiya. They have very long hours as they are expected to stay awake to assist the returning geisha in the early hours of the morning from the teahouses where they have been performing.
Many children were sold by poor parents to the okiya. This was very common in Japan for the survival of girl children. IF a geisha has a baby, and it is a boy, she must leave the okiya or give up the child. If she has a girl, that child is absorbed into the okiya as a maid.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2009, 2014, published in “A Seasoning of Lust”, Lulu.com 200
July 15, 2014 at 5:13 am
I enjoyed reading this poem– simple, clean and beautiful. We need such cross-cultural reflections.
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July 15, 2014 at 1:54 pm
Hi RK! Thank you so much for reading this poem. Yes, we need more cross cultural reflections. As poets, writers, one of the greatest thrills in our creative lives is putting ourselves into a different culture and trying to find sympathy and understanding.
It demands a lot of research, but more than that, it demands, when it works….a connection to humanity that we are not familiar with. It demands that we make those links.
Thank you, again.
Jane
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July 15, 2014 at 5:09 pm
I agree with you, Jane
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July 24, 2014 at 7:47 pm
So very true, Jane. A beautiful poem with insight into a culture that is not known to me. xx
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July 24, 2014 at 8:47 pm
Thank you, TR. It is rather sad the state of maikos today, but they are reviving the geisha culture and it wouldn’t be without them. Thank you for reading and your comment.
Jane
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