<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Sun Streaming Through Patio Abutilons Onto Hotei’s Face At 7:40 AM</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"> - for James Wright</p><div class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Hotei, that big-bellied laughing Buddha,</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Do you think he cares that he sits crooked</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">I say jauntily at the bottom of my rock pile</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">His grey concrete skin speckled green and black?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">My wife asks can’t you clean him up?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">It looks like you dumped him </p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">In that eyesore of a rock pile</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Are you ever going to <i class="">do</i> something with that? </p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">I might but right now Hotei and I </p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Are seeking enlightenment</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Through the practice of non-doing.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">And besides he looks cool on that crooked rock.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Did you notice how neatly I cut the hair of our Buddha tree</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">(A gift from your dreadlocked buddy twenty-five years ago)</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">So Hotei can see better as the hummers take the nectar</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Flitting about from one Chinese lantern to the next?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">But wouldn’t that Ace Hardware concrete cleaner</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Get that nasty green and black mold off his face?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">It might but right now Hotei and I </p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Are retiring from the world of appearances,</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Well at 7:40 a.m. the sun blew right through that charade.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">I looked out my kitchen window to catch the busy hummers</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">And the sun was streaming onto the Buddha tree trunk</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">I was dumbstruck by Hotei’s shining face</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;">Lit from within and without, his brilliance.</p><div style="line-height: 27px;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 27px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Brian McSweeney</p></div></body></html>