Photography © Edward S. Gault
Target
Some places have done a pretty good job removing the homeless and beggars so you can go shopping with the kids without feeling like maybe you should dig in your pocket for some spare change. Seeing is believing, some say. What you see is what you get, others proclaim. The car is at the far end of the parking lot, a long way from the corral for the shopping carts. It’s hot, and the kids are fighting over one of the toys. I don’t work here, you reason, and anyway, people need jobs. It’s not like it used to be.
Robert Witmer has lived in Japan for the past 46 years and is now happily retired after 40 years of teaching creative writing and critical thinking at Sophia University. He has made the most of his long holidays, traveling widely in many parts of Asia, including several Himalayan treks and long bicycle trips around the islands of Japan. Besides the time he spends with family, he spends his days reading, writing, camping in the mountains west of Tokyo, and playing petanque with friends from around the world.
Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore. His poetry collection, Airhead and Other Poems was published this year by Read and Green Books.