POEM: "Three Gestures"

Three Gestures


I. Dharmacakra

The gesture of teaching
beyond a gesture of learning
and all my gaps, all that I forgot

By going where we have to go
this we see without the mirror
in the whiteouts and the sand

Crazy streets still grow wild weed
it's the contemplative mind, so best to
heed well the angle at deadly corners

So strange now the dirty deals we made
the twinge and the fidget and the snore
the life-span, the sweet rose and the sea

How to learn the perfect cup of tea
teach me to dance the broken arrow
and I will show you the broken step


II. Varada

A kitten was run over by a car
tonight it lay on the road crying
intestines strewn like sausages

Before I could crush her skull
she got up and licked her gore
then walked back over to the curb

Nighttime, a parade of people
crossing the perilous borders
begin their journeys of freedom

Probably died in the bushes
from her first true crossing
a kid, a plan, a nalpadika —

No walk for this in any language
no word can toy with compassion

we learn too late most of it is deadly

I wrap the story up and let it go
later seal it inside a diamond heart
and send this poem to the ones I love

III. Abhaya

How these days pass
the pillows are difficult
old speeches are regretted

Faces will carry faces
baskets within baskets
a foot in parallel worlds

A burning house next to
an insipid day at work
a Möbius twist of tracks 

Nature, it isn't feckless
sometimes rabbits wait 
for the big train to pass

Faces to faces watch
the mirrors cracking
waiting for the train to leave

Birds go search in the wind
an egg falls from the nest
an old lizard sucks it dry

Freedom is on the bend
now go, going home try
and practise courage


© 2014 Rob Schackne