(waning gibbous) ...there is no taking refuge in the family.
-Dhammapada  20.288



Air calves clear -
hear
cardinal inquisitive,
thrush scold.
Old chickadee
knew
who moved
this rock of air,
where winter was.
There, on the threshold,
he died,
singing spring
among
love's lessons
and complaints.

Told me
last thoughts
as I held him,
this old bird,
in hand -
and then,
when
he'd gone,
the air opened,
exhaling
as far as I
could see.

m o k s h a

1

thoughts on 

the human surround

sound of

reason for

2

exploring

another red 

fled

shot through

3

even as

enduring 

aspects of

are erasable

4

locus mirabilis

surprisingly room

for 

partum

5

tabula plena

6

the eternal stars

are

7

swans

tanagers

flies 

joist
jointed
joined
spine, the heart

soft-bodied extinction
(close, nearby)

somatic


flooded
we
you
we
float





birth font
death-ish

"Look at old age....no enduring stability."
- Dhammpada 11.147


wit's returned
and tears
nimbuses


sorrow
shifted
antibodies

the flatworm
planarian, floundering,
among the bracken

...not seeking wealth or power for himself or for his family... wise...righteous...
-Dhammpada 6.84





1
the tulip
the snake
the brown earth awake

child up

2
the jasmine
the shed
the black panther, dead

child down

3
the strawberry
the snake
the severed foot boot

child rising

4
walnuts
wind lobbed
bobbing in rivers

child found

5
plums among
the wattled wasps


child silenced

6
witch hazel
marks
the return
of the larks

child sung

7
the fruit
the flood
the blood flung
thud

as foot

a child witnessed

fell from the sky
while her damage
airborne
became tulips,
walnuts,
or could have.

we don't understand
the lightness
of

flower
child
foot-stung fruit

we understand ground
not these,
hovering now,
or the bird's return
or wasp, rising
as she,
surviving,
would.

8
up
down
rising
found
silenced
sung
witnessed
won.