Memorial Day

MEMORIAL DAY

Do you remember...?
Broad brushstrokes
lashing from vacant eyes;
stolen from smooth bronze
Skin?

Do you remember...
A smiling, seated Buddha
tossing you a skinny ball
From days before the child’s
eggshell castle was
too crowded?

Empty shell of metal film
pounded into fingertips near
skin, withered and blackened,
fragile, but untorn.

That painter’s hand is a mummified ghost
of silenced flesh and unkind corrosions;
the stone, overhead,
left him, your living
curse.

Meeting, Presumably, the Son of a Man

Alone, in the desert
I met a Man. From the sand
he had forged, and now carried,
a mirror. Like a light
burden.

Blinding, the sun
flashed in its movements,
obscured any other
reflections.

He could have been
a mirage, of course.
“Who are you,” I said.
“I am that I am.”

“Do you know what you’ve said?”
said I. “Do you know what
you’ve presumed?”

“Do you know what you’ve asked?”
said he. “Do you know
what you’ve assumed?”

Polarities

Winds, caked ice
onto my face;
lost in concepts of glory:
an ultimate race.
Struggling, I plodded,
through arctic snow,
possessed by a dream
that terrible to know;
treading, treading,
alien land,
where no man, by right
should have strength to stand;
but vision was mine,
of wonderous crusade,
'til a snow cave
became my palisade;
I looked down,
to find quest done;
a heap of golden skulls
had I there won, and
I played there,
among scintillant bone -

having come not to take,
but to add my own.

A Matter of Course

Of course I died last week,
and speak

The run of a river leaves no wake;
the proud dog hobbles in sorrow;
the clouds gather rust.

Of course the words are upside down;
the sage is a child, whining,
the Woman gives birth to dust,
and Sky rots under us.

Of course the pit is bright,
the sacrifice is brought to slay us;
the killer loves us all
and brings us baskets of fruit.

Of course he does.

Of course
He does.

Kundalini Yogi

Mantra, chakra
gobbledygook-goo,

I am exotic.
How about you?

Sage, mage,
Old Man & the Sea.

You seek a master.
How about me?

Why not
me?

TeLu Proverb

The world is drowning in information
--and starving for wisdom.