A SHOUT FROM THE DARK
After Jim Moore
If like a Buddhist I accepted the world
as it was given, without judgement,
does it mean I would remain unmoved
by any atrocities, any tragedies?
Karma gives birth to snakes, swine,
songbirds. Step out of one life
and come back as another,
a woman with an enigmatic smile
was once a man, a pauper or a prince,
the possibilities are endless.
A girl from the old neighborhood
is murdered, and before death, tortured.
In The Metropolitan Museum
Buddha turns inward, eyes downcast.
“Turn around! The bitter sea knows no bound.”
A shout from the dark that says
what’s bitter is not life, only emotion.
But Issa, practitioner of detachment, too, doubted.
What are words if they can’t sing
dirges, when even the crows are crying out.
