Face & Lisp
(For Magrini)
Life shelves the forgotten.
Night’s a looted library.
Plunge into failure.
A dream’s evasive.
Feelings whip successive images.
The mirror’s right to slouch.
Visit her hut.
Doors like whispers.
Enter or leave.
Death stalks, softly, harshly.
Insufferable passenger, that’s you.
Hold my hand till the habitable hemisphere’s gone.
Hollow, I multiply.
Waves copy waves.
Everything’s the same.
Now I’m gone too.
Daisen-In
Each dawn raked to flow,
white gravel keeps the Abbot’s home
an island. Start with two
cycloning mounds, a distant tree.
Continue along the pretense
of a river that knows no better
than to turn a corner. Grand
rocks snidely insist on twist
and eddy. A hole for the Buddha’s
foot holds onto water. On minor
boulders, a blessing of bonsai
could be the heart of the world. But
flow’s relentless. A stone pondering
drowning is a tiger. Midstream, another
battles time like a turtle. At the edge,
another stays put like a cow. Only one
with any sense aims to be a treasure
boat at ease with whatever the current
wants. Now end to begin again
or step inside. Nothingness, emptiness.
You might at last shut up
and learn the difference.
Quest Motif In Uplistsikhe
As if ink nabs light,
somebody draws a map.
Follow the unfolding
to stray yourself a way.
Among disassembling villages,
the road’s yours.
Grapes promise wine once
you’re back. Rust bridges
fast green water, gossiping
girls splashing below.
Trust toil up white
rock for a trail
smudged as a hasty fingerprint.
Top’s a crown of caves
humans made hideaways.
The gods, naturally, are gone,
as is the point.
Views remain, and a little shade.
