All for You, Honored Ones - Rebecca del Rio

[Larry Robinson]

All for You, Honored Ones

The teacher Dongshan was washing his bowl by the river and saw two crows fighting over a frog and tearing it apart. The student asked, “Why does it always have to be like this?” Dongshan answered, “It’s all for you, Honored One.”
 

 
First the monk asks
“Why does it always come to this?”
Then the teacher
“It’s all for you.”
 
The steps of the medieval church
Malachite of the Mediterranean
Below, the bridal party
Gathered. It’s all
For you.
 
The child limp and lifeless
Another beach, the Mediterranean
Cobalt. The sky cloudless
Pitiless. It’s all
For you.
 
Locked in our homes
Fearing the faces
Of friends, others. Fear
On our faces, hidden
Behind our plague masks.
It’s all for us, Honored Ones.
 
One day, we are the Frog
Feeling our joints torn
The body opening to
A heartless world
The place of no belonging
An alien inside our own 
Skin, a refugee,
Ripped from home.
 
Or today, we are the Crow
Ravaging, tearing to pieces
Others, remaking them into food
For infinite need, boundless greed.
An invader, the conquerer carrying 
Chaos and terror like a torch.
It’s all for us, the Honored Ones.
 
Hungry or hunted
Observer or observed,
Crow, frog, sapien, or oak,
We are the Honored Ones
For whom Life presents.
Life in its many guises
Including Death, fire 
Joy and change. All for you,
Honored ones.
All.

	- Rebecca del Rio
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