your place

your place:

scary movies
first couch kiss

school skipping
out front step sitting
holding hands
listening





walk by
cross street
looking left

still your place,
but you're not there



http://magpietales.blogspot.com/

tired monk walks

walking stick
leaning on Hemlock tree
ready always ready
for forest walks
quick stream vaults
this old steady
gait keeper

Basho's Will

to the next tired monk
i leave
everything i own:

    one robe
    one bowl

tired monk: winter katana

snow falls, piles,

drifts dune deep

cars buried

wheels spin

sink deep

over the white banks
big monkish snow yeti




robes flap
leggings tight wrapped
to his back
a shovel strapped

his winter katana

digs and digs down
tires grip road
red shovel waves
in rearview mirror

off message

i.

temple halls, rooms
all drafty chilled
snow rips
fast under door cracks

lil'novice monks gather
hot tea
kitchen fire light tales

ii.

tales of the tired monk's
fighting days
all back lots, taverns
field party fists
beer bottle bashing
novices lean forward
lost in gritty details

iii.

the abbess looks in
steaming disapproval
...off message?

iv.

the tired monk
finishes the tale
"young ones:
move from punches to poems"

step

step into - onto
rugged beauty

perfect pattern of wear

rough handed
craftsman task

a remnant in this
asphalt world

On Discourse

two young monks
       novices
stand - split lip
throbbing hand

tired monk waits
the silence beckons
for answers

"we did nothing"

nose blood runs
free  - curls - flows  - over lips

knuckles swell

more silence

"we were having a discourse

with our fists"