Zen Gold by Ann E. Michael

 

Image | Mitch Kesler

Zen Gold

One yellow leaf drifting on a breeze’s

invisible path—

no  —  a butterfly’s black-fringed symmetry

in the sun’s slant.

 

Yellow as   —

morning glory leaves in drought, 

gold heart shapes before meadow begins

its goldenrod dazzle.

 

The sun goes down, the heat of

day sucked away

into the hard ground or the woods’

shadows

and it is finally bearable to sit outside

as birds roost and crickets buzz.

 

A fly crawls into my wine glass

circumambulates the cylinder then

falls into the drink, so I assist it —

my finger a lifesaver. I am the fly’s Bodhisattva.

 

I’ve sometimes failed in compassion,

I know this act does not balance the past.

Look there  —  yellow moon now rising!


© Ann E. Michael 

Ann E. Michael

Ann E. Michael lives in eastern Pennsylvania. Her latest poetry collection (2024) is Abundance/Diminishment. Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, One Art, Ekphrasis Review, and many others, as well as in numerous anthologies. She chronicles her writing, reading, and garden on a long-running blog at www.annemichael.blog.


 


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