Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Poem by Stephen Bunch

As We Await Buddha's Birthday May 12




A Christmas Gift


This Buddha’s hand has eighteen fingers but

still lost its grip,

bright yellow and arthritic looking, wrapped

in tissue paper, boxed and shipped,

redolent of citrus but its flesh

already rotting far

from its Bodhi, beneath

this Occidental tree,

reaching out as if to say,

“Take. Eat.”