Because of feeling content,
because of knowing the natural living-truths,
and because amid yet another holocaust of kindness
the Sun continues beaming
with the sparrows squeaky-whistlings from the hedges
before the heat of an August day slides the baton
to star-filling sky-cooling night
in this relay race against
Guns & Money & Destruction Incorporated $$.
 
The Buddha must emit that subtle smile
serving both as the wheel’s grease
and the way to get off the wheel of fortunes,
the subtle smile serving
as light at the beginning of the tunnel
and the honey in my bitter coffee.
 
The Buddha is not some everything is nice-nice watch me
oh watch me bend my body and hold my pose,
the Buddha is a holistic-anarchist,
an ever-greening tendril adapting with the surroundings,
growing through the fence of mental division
and through the concrete of deadly progress,
spiraling through the hypnotic linear repetition
of dynasties fed by demographic trajectories
and online ivy-league ivory tower pundits
who never make a decent pun or smile
that subtle smile.
 
The Buddha, tired of sitting on his-her ass,
gets up to feed from this very air and dips
a hand mudra into the ocean
praying for its purification.
 
The Buddha is tired of sitting
having seen things un-change for too long
so the Buddha is walking to a theater near you,
the Buddha is walking to a forest near you,
the Buddha is walking with you,
the Buddha can be you
if you
are not attached
to being what you have assumed
a Buddha should be.
 
The Buddha is walking with galaxies
on the soles of the feet, the Buddha
is tired of the rubber always meeting the road
when the Buddha is the Sky touching the Earth.

Buddha's Footprint Carlos Estevez

 
Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.