PRAYER FOR MY TEACHER

A sky in my head tonight,

only I don’t know if it’s a star

or not, I don’t know what

it wants, like the wind surely

must want something the way

it calls me through the trees

and across the still green lawns

of my quiet neighbors like someone

hissing a curse or a last

blessing before hell, but what

I found inside the dark

this time was a wave of something

warm that almost seemed to,

or did, hold me there

for a long enough second

so I could see the brightly

sonic outline of everything

that wasn’t there, and be freed

by that and made happy for you,

so here is the smile of my mouth,

only half, as it should be, and here

is the smile of my eyes I hope

you see some light in, and here

is the smile of my fingers held up

in the shape of the lotus, that heals

and that satisfies,

but I don’t know why peace

is still too much to ask for,

or why the landscape must

include the inconsequential

corpses from both sides,

as if posed for some demonic

puppet show for the generals

and their overweight children

to enjoy in the imperial garden.

The flaws of our reason have finally

shivered into shifting plates

of what we knew all along,

come to pass.