an august early morning
in city brick asphalt soil grass and trees julyabsorbed
a red brown black toad poised unglazed as clay
on a knee of buddha turned away from his gaze
from high unseen rare untimely
a grey crane alights on buddhas head
a glorious globe unfolding in the sun
ball of medicine paper burning with color and flowering stigma
crane folds its wings in predatory prayer
toads beautiful heart beats faster and broken
buddha smiles
after eating an ant and lichen toad hops to arbor vitae
crane loosens and swallows a stone of clay and spirals away
buddha remains serene eroding
cast toad into the city and crane into the world
to share hunger
for wet muddy reeds and rice in unsplit unfused atoms of drenching rain
