by Alice Lesnick
Remember the prizewinning tree, he asked,
Its children all around it? Half knocked out
By a storm — what a tragedy!
And his professor’s son, he says, a while later,
Killed by a falling tree when all of them were young
40 years on the father never got over it
Would following the Dharma path, the speaker wonders,
Have helped him?
Yet another offers: what a great way to go!
Young and on a good day to be outside
Go where? I wonder, following their
Conversation.
Go to ground, answers Earth
then beneath and then
Rise again with the gases
With the trees, their
Roots conceiving and entering
Stratagems into the system, information
Broad jumping via subterranean
Fascia
In a recent book about change following
Volcanic loss some of the people
Turn into trees
Gradually
By staying put
Learn to slow
Their breathing
And learn to wait
And stay together
And speak differently
And gentle tragedy
Translated by Mia Tran