“Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection” is a collection of various short poems scattered throughout Haruki Murakami and Shigesato Itoi’s 1981 strange collaborative story collection, Let’s Meet in a Dream.
Oil Sardines
Hey ump,
where you lookin’ at,
I ate some canned sardines yesterday,
but they were a hell of a lot better than you are.
4/10/1981
Squeeze
“In between third base and home base,”
Oosugi stated after the game,
“There’s some kinda Tropic of Cancer,
and that
is what stopped my feet.”
9/2/1981
Star Wars
A long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away,
the Yakult Swallows won a game, I think…?
3/24/1986
Charlie Manuel: An Ode to Charlie Manuel
Charlie Manuel
snatched the fly-ball to right field
like a man snatching a falling hand grenade
in the middle of a land-mine field
6/28/1981
Beer
“It’s not my fault
that Matsuoka gave up a home run”
the unhappy
beer vendor boy said.
5/16/1981
