![\"kusakabe_kimbei_-_20_funeral_service_in_a_temple\"](\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_20_Funeral_Service_in_a_Temple.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Day 1<\/p>\n
So much noise,
\nso much hurry.
\nTires screech and I land
\nlike a discarded feather,
\nface up,
\neyes toward the stars.<\/p>\n
Motor sounds swirl,
\ndragging red streamers.
\nThe air is warm,
\nthe pavement warmer.
\nThe night grows sharp
\nas the body snatchers arrive.<\/p>\n
Faces hover.
\nI feel pressure,
\nhere and there.
\nTheir hurry dissipates.
\nIn their eyes
\nI’m already dead.<\/p>\n
I don’t blame them.
\nHow are they to know?
\nThey are merely
\ncollecting karma
\nfor their next incarnation.
\nI’m grateful to oblige.<\/p>\n
They wrap me in cloth,
\ngentle as an infant.
\nThey offer prayers,
\nthen lift me into a minivan.
\nFingers brush across my eyes,
\nthe night becomes permanent.<\/p>\n
Day 2<\/p>\n
The morgue,
\nas silent as a library,
\nas dark as a dreamless sleep.
\nIt allows me
\nthe necessary time
\nto find order in my life.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t the best husband,
\nthe best father,
\nthe best person
\nI could have been,
\nbut in my heart
\nI tried.<\/p>\n
It is said there is shame
\nin inaction,
\nto take what is given
\nand carelessly throw it away.
\nFor this
\nI am guilty.<\/p>\n
But I did not love any less,
\nI did not desire any less,
\nmy failing
\nwas in not knowing.
\nFor this
\nI am guilty.<\/p>\n
And though I had abandoned
\neverything I’d known,
\nand had become homeless
\nin every sense of the word,
\nI hope I leave in my absence
\nmore than I have taken.<\/p>\n
I hear the attendants come and go.
\nBodies are removed,
\nbodies delivered.
\nIt begins to smell like flowers,
\nflowers more fragrant than memory.
\nI am hopeful.<\/p>\n
Day 3<\/p>\n
I can no longer hear.
\nI merely sense the ebb and flow
\nof energies,
\nthe monks from the monasteries
\nchanting prayers
\nfor the lost and the damned.<\/p>\n
It is said
\nwhen the body and brain
\ncease to function,
\nthe mind is the last to depart,
\nthe mind lingers
\nto ensure safe passage.<\/p>\n
All my life
\nI was in a race with time.
\nIf I didn’t succeed,
\nor meet a certain expectation,
\nI thought I had failed.
\nI was wrong.<\/p>\n
Time is insubstantial.
\nWhat matters is happiness.
\nIn happiness lies all truth,
\nall understanding.
\nIn happiness lies the gift of love,
\nto give and to receive.<\/p>\n
The chanting enters my consciousness
\nin waves so perfect
\nit is as if I have become part
\nof a great chorus,
\none that only the voice of death
\ncan sing.<\/p>\n
My eyelids become translucent.
\nI can see each helpful soul,
\ntheir heart beating
\nlike a miniature furnace,
\neach holding a candle
\nto light the way home.<\/p>\n
Most of all
\nI smell flowers,
\nbeautiful potent
\nundying flowers,
\nof a scent beyond description,
\nbeyond ethereal.<\/p>\n
The moment approaches,
\nlike a gentle wind.
\nThe fragrance multiplies.
\nI let the wind take me.
\nI am at peace at last.
\nI fill with joy.<\/p>\n
Day 1 So much noise, so much hurry. Tires screech and I land like a discarded feather, face up, eyes toward the stars. Motor sounds swirl, dragging red streamers. The air is warm, the pavement warmer. The night grows sharp as the body snatchers arrive. Faces hover. I feel pressure, here and there. Their hurry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}