Transparent Words - Poetry

 

TO-JI CICADAS

By James Bell

 

 

Cicadas sing

build a crescendo

of harpy-like song then fade

to nothing for no reason

other than silence

outside To-ji

 

their insistent chant

praise from

unfortunate reincarnations

for the twenty-one Buddhas

of the Mikkyo Mandala

 

their chant to wood

transient as bamboo

that surrounds the yard beyond

this tatami room where I sit

and which has sagged with time.

 

I remember the

coolness of the temple as

a man swept up dust

fallen from passing feet on

to the thick, ebony floor.