I watched her brilliance
as she flashed amidst heaven -
midair for effect.

She scorched a Sakura blossom.
The pink petal drifted on a hot wind
and then slowly curled
edges blackening like burnt paper.
I smelled a cherry scent
tinged with an aroma of vaporised flesh -
her perfume.

The shadows grew real,
as she made them elongate.
Their names etched in stone.

Only I could survive her.
Years of war had lined me
with lead and concrete.
Like some mad Oppenheimer,
changing history for the sake of curiosity,
I had blinded myself with my slated glasses.

I stood transfigured
With heaped ashes of spent lives
Swirling as she came.