The Blue Buddha
The Blue Buddha and Other Poems, Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books, 2025.
It is often said
there are
countless ways to die.
I’m familiar
with a few dozen,
including cancer, influenza,
heart attack, car accident,
self-inflicted gunshot wound,
war, and the inevitable
slow-motion
biological program
of disintegration.
Such thoughts
are of little concern
when you are in
your twenties and thirties.
It becomes a nagging irritant
well into your seventies,
that is if you manage
to live that long.
I pick up the
heavy blue earthenware
Buddha statue
from the bookcase
and hold it close to my head.
If there is wisdom there,
it is stillborn.
I remind myself
that life is transition.
I cannot
fully comprehend
Samsara,
which is
the state of existence
I acquire while
going around
in circles.
