The crew of the Enola Gay recorded the time of impact
of the hydrogen bomb as 8:16. The official recording
of the Japanese side was 8:15. Probably the bomb
detonated at just before 8:16. This means that when
the moment of silence begins, as it does every year
at exactly 8:15, Hiroshima was bustling with noise:
streetcars packed full of people heading to work
clanked down iron rails; crows cawed as they came
down from the hills and took their places in the fields;
and the collective scream of the cicadas carpeted
every nook and cranny of the sunlit city.
After a while you don’t even hear them.

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Ian Willey is a sociolinguist from Ohio currently living in the Seto Inland Sea area of Japan. He has published hundreds of short poems in on-line and print journals, including Modern Haiku, Right Hand Pointing, and One Sentence Poems.

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